The next major business travel hub and leisure destination is on the United Arab Emirates' horizon.
Marjan, a Ras Al Khaimah-based master developer and investment firm, plans to bring the same experience, corporate structure and excellence to Ras Al Khaimah as fellow Emirati developers Aldar and Emaar have brought to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, respectively, said Alison Grinnell, Marjan's group chief operating officer and CEO of Marjan Hospitality.
Ras Al Khaimah is the United Arab Emirates' northernmost emirate. Its capital city, also named Ras Al Khaimah, is a little over an hour's drive northeast from Dubai.
Grinnell joined Marjan following almost a decade at state-owned ownership and investment vehicle RAK Hospitality, and she said the move was a seamless one.
“It was a merger between the two entities … they’d already been working very closely together on a number of projects, with the largest one being the [1,542-room] Wynn Al Marjan Island, where we were both equity investors together with Wynn Resorts themselves,” she said on the latest podcast episode of “The Upgrade: EMEA Hospitality News.”
“Marjan is a master developer. RAK was really looking after and building operational assets. … It really was a natural move to bring the two together, having the Ras Al Khaimah master developer come together with hospitality, leisure and operational,” Grinnell added.
The masterplan for Ras Al Khaimah is not limited to Marjan Island, Grinnell said.
Other parts of the plan include RAK Central, Grade-A offices, and another hotel development area called Marjan Beach, which is larger than Marjan Island and will include the return of Hard Rock Hotels to the region.
The larger area of the emirate — nicknamed The Nature Emirate — comprises mountainous areas, 35 miles of beach and 7,000 years of history, she said.
Ras Al Khaimah is beginning to see green shoots, both in regards to returning international guests and a healthier domestic market, Grinnell said. She added the emirate immediately concentrated on bringing back tourism demand when the U.S.-Iran war began earlier this year.
“The level of agility and pivoting that we saw from our resorts to really focus on the staycation market, bringing in new people from other emirates, and residents, we managed to really learn from what happened in COVID,” she said. “We had a 93% increase in UAE-based visitors.”
To hear more from Marjan's Alison Grinnell on Ras Al Khaimah's infrastructure goals and development milestones and a hotel demand overview of the rest of the UAE, listen to the podcast embedded above.
Subscribe to the CoStar News Hotels’ podcast, “The Upgrade: EMEA Hospitality News” wherever you like to listen.