Ras Al Khaimah property market gets boost from tourism, hospitality sectors

Above, the five-star Rixos Bab Al Bahr hotel in Ras Al Khaimah. (Courtesy Rixos Bab Al Bahr)

DUBAI: Ras Al Khaimah’s tourism and hospitality sectors buoyed the emirate’s property market during the first half, thanks to continuing government efforts promote it as a visitor destination.
The residential market meanwhile continued to suffer from weaker demand, and was further pressured by declining rentals rates in neighboring emirates, consultancy CBRE said in its latest property report on Ras Al Khaimah.
The combined demand weakness and lower rates “have brought about deflation in rental performance” for the emirate, CBRE said.
Ras Al Khaimah’s strategy to focus on global markets resulted into a 10 percent increase in international guest arrivals as of June, mostly coming from Germany, Russia, the UK and India.
After welcoming 390,499 guests from January to June, which was 6.5 percent higher compared with the same period last year, the Ras Al Khaimah government expects to surpass its annual target of 900,000 visitors for 2017.
A steady rise in visitor arrivals, coupled with a limited number of hotel rooms being added to the market, pushed average occupancy rates higher to 75.1 percent in the first half, CBRE said, as against 70.9 percent during the same period of 2016.
Hotels in the emirate likewise reported improved revenues from their available rooms during the first half, which rose to Dh456 per room for each guest night versus Dh426 last year.
Revenue per available room is a performance metric used in the hotel industry and is calculated by multiplying a hotel’s average daily room rate by its occupancy rate.
The 240-room Hilton Garden Inn, which replaced the Hilton Ras Al Khaimah when it closed in 2015 for refurbishment, and Cove Rotana’s 112-room expansion were completed during the second quarter, adding 352 new keys in the emirate’s hospitality market.
“RAK’s hospitality market remains on a positive course, aided by the relative low levels of new room supply, CBRE said. “With future supply levels also remaining constrained in the short term, we expect a continuation of the current growth trends during the remainder of the year and into 2018, presuming current visitor forecasts are met or bettered.”