Ajman sets sights on five million tourists by 2020

Ajman Tourism is aiming to ambitiously multiply its visitor numbers by 2021.

Ajman Tourism general manager Faisal Al Nuaimi said: “We are optimistic, we hope to attract five million visitors by 2020. We had 950,000 tourists in 2015 and we aim to increase that by 20% by the end of this year.”

The first participation for Ajman Tourism at ATM was five years ago. At ATM 2016, Ajman Tourism launched a new brand identity and website that is targeted at being a one stop shop for tour operators and OTAs.

Nuaimi says attracting the larger, well-established operators was a challenge of the past. Today the emirate and its developers are being approached. One such development is by the Indian operator Oberoi, which will open its doors in 2016.

“The Oberoi will open later this year and it will take the number of hotels, hotel apartments and resorts to 37 in the emirate of Ajman. The total number of rooms will reach 3800 rooms, number of beds will increase by 20% to 5900 beds.”

Nuaimi confirmed luxury-operators Lux will also be opening its property that will serve the Al Zorah community and the Golf Club.

He continued: “Our plan from now until 2021 is to add a further 45 hotels on top of the existing properties. Along with this we also plan to attract tourists to Ajman with food and beverage outlets and entertainment.”

Nuaimi belives that the strategy of adding more rooms and attracting tourists has to be linked with a tangible F&B strategy.

He said: “We have started a new project called Ajman Marina, which has been launched two months ago that will open the space for the F&B industry, about 22 outlets. The Marina will be ready by 2017.”