Fujairah targets tourism for growth (page 2 of 2)

Its aim is to cut the journey time between the two emirates to just 30 minutes.

Antaki thinks once the highway opens, budget and smaller aircrafts will head to Fujairah. "Fujairah is such a strategic location in which many are interested, but because of distance it's still not practical for them to come here. This will change when the road opens in a year to 18 months time. And once this is done, the Fujairah airport will change completely."

Currently, Fujairah Airport is more of a commercial rather than a passenger hub, with no declared plans to change that. But is has updated its arrival and departure terminals to the point that they will start operating e-gates.

"Passenger traffic likes to go to the main hub like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and to a certain extent Ras Al Khaimah, it being close to Dubai." Indian Air and Egypt Air have flights to Fujairah Airport, while Emirates Airlines uses it as a secondary airport if Dubai International Airport is closed.

Satellite emirates

Fujairah is conservative in announcing its development, and unlikely to shout about it in ways similar to Dubai. This is because the government doesn't believe in over advertising and under delivering.

"The ruler of Fujairah, HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, is a wise man who has allowed enough marketing to attract enough people into what's available. He knows that if we over advertise, people will come and if they didn't find the product available they will leave and will not come back again," said Antaki.

Most tour operators in the UAE operate in Fujairah now. But Antaki recalls the difficult times the emirate had getting into brochures five years ago. At that time, companies wanted to concentrate on what was considered the winning brand - Dubai.

But Antaki doesn't think Fujairah can be compared Dubai, which has the financial and intellectual resources that Fujairah currently lacks.

"Fujairah benefits from Dubai's experience by positioning itself near Dubai. It's the normal economic forces equations: when you have a main hub, you should have satellites around it. So Dubai is the hub and we happen to be the satellite," Antaki states.

This means that as big investments find their way into Dubai, smaller investments look for an alternative. Antaki believes there is a product for each pocket. There are investments that can handle millions and billions and there are investments that can afford hundreds and thousands. And both are needed for the whole economy.

Creative City

Six months ago, the Fujairah Culture and Media Authority (FOMA) launched Fujairah Media, a joint venture between Fujairah Investments, the investment arm of the government of Fujairah, and Arab International Media Services.

Mohammed Saeed Al Dhanhani, Chairman of Fujairah International Monodrama Festival, said this has given way to the launch of Creative City, an alternative to Dubai Media City. Creative City will consist of seven phases: an audio visual zone, cinema zone, publishing zone, theatrical arts, design and technology, and training and production.

"This comes out of our attempts to attract media players to Fujairah in order to play a role in the emirate's overall development, especially tourism", Al Dhanhani said.

Great importance is also given to the role festivals will have in attracting tourists, such as the Fujairah Monodrama International Festival in early December, an annual event running since 2003. Next year, Fujairah plans to launch a radio-television festival, as well as various cultural and music festivals.

A five-year plan promises of further developments for Fujairah. The Fujairah government's hope is that the emirate will grow to be a "world contender", said Antaki, making its own mark on the world tourism map.