Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Is Not Just A Place - it's A Journey!

With its unique combination of mountains, coastal beaches, desert, pearls and many more RAK is one of the perfect destinations for both leisure and adventure. At the Arab Aviation Summit 2023, Mr. Raki Phillips, CEO, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) interacts with Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World and discussed on key points towards Introduction to RAK, its future plans and aviation strategies. Excerpts...

- Vishal Kashyap

For RAK, 2022 has been a significant year with 1.13 million tourist footfall. What are the projections for 2023?

2022 has indeed been a momentous year for Ras Al Khaimah. Achieving our highest ever annual visitor numbers with 1.13M overnight arrivals in 2022 is an important step in driving the Emirate's continued growth as a destination of the future, in addition to being recognised in Time magazine as one of the World's Greatest Places of 2022 and CNN Travel's best destinations to visit in 2023. This strong performance is thanks to a proactive, future-forward and agile investment and development strategy, and guides our ultimate goal of welcoming 3 million visitors annually by 2030.

Which country caters to a large number of tourists to RAK?

Our key source markets include. Kazakhstan, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, India and Czech Republic representing a 40% year-on-year increase in all international visitors last year.

RAK Int. Airport mainly operates LCCs. With Qatar starting flights from Nov 23 onwards, do you look forward to attracting more FSCs?