Fujairah targets tourism for growth

Fujairah, with its location on the east coast of the UAE, is probably the most beautiful of the emirates. Along with its sandy beaches, the emirate has the Hajar Mountains and historic monuments such as old castles. These have made Fujairah an internal tourist destination for the UAE residents, but recently the emirate has begun to witness an increasing flow of people from Europe - mainly Russia and Germany.

However, Fujairah's tourist industry is still young, leading the government to take steps to develop it further to put the emirate on holiday makers' maps.

'What Fujairah mainly lacks is enough rooms and this is something we need to handle fast. Le Meridien Al Aqah was a good start to positioning Fujairah on the tourism map. But a lot still needs to be done and this is happening now,' Mohammed Bin Majed Al Aleeli, Director General of the Department of Industry and Economy in Fujairah said.

Al Aleeli sees that Fujairah's strategic location will help develop its tourism sector. He added: 'The emirate overlooks the Indian Ocean and is located outside the Strait of Hormuz, which is a hot spot worldwide. This has made it a navigation hub and an ideal transit point for oil ships, and this gives the emirate the power to support other industries such as tourism.'

As well as rooms, Fujairah needs to develop its tourist villages, entertainment and tours programmes, and most of all shopping malls. For Al Aleeli, tourism is not just about a beach and hotel room but more of a complete programme that must include entertainment, diving, and mountain climbing as the emirate's nature allows for such things.

Mega plans for Fujairah

Last year, the Fujairah government allocated Dhs2.94bn to develop its tourism over the coming five years. Still Patrick Antaki, General Manager of Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach resort, believes the emirate has experienced rapid growth over the past five years.

'When we first opened there was nobody in this place and today we have many competitors. We happened to be the first new hotel to open in 25 years and the first five-star hotel in the history of the place. Now, there are other developments underway, two hotels have just opened, one is about to open and two are claiming the land and probably will be kicking off within a couple of years.'

Three mega projects are underway in Fujairah. This includes the Mina Al Fajer Resort, a Dhs600m sea-front community, the contract for which was awarded in early June to the Malaysian Tidalmarine Engineering and is expected to be completed by the end of 2009. Mina Al Fajer will be managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts and will consist of a marina, 48 mountain villas, 13 solarium villas, and 80 marina apartments, in addition to a 200-room five-star hotel.

The other two mega projects are the Radisson Al Aqah Beach resort, consisting of 320 rooms and scheduled to open by 2009 as well, and the Dana Project on the coast line consisting of 350 villas and 11 hotels.

'Developing a 2km coastline for tourism and hotel development is a significant sign that the area is taking off. It's one of the most beautiful areas; it has got the Indian Ocean and the mountains,' Antaki points out.

Linking with Dubai

Infrastructure is definitely one area that needs to be addressed by the government of Fujairah if it is to stimulate tourism. Early this year, the Ministry of Public Works commenced work on the Dubai-Fujairah highway, a 45km road costing an estimated Dhs1.12bn. 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.