Sharjah is currently experence an upswing in occupancy rates. [Roy Mattappalli] Sharjah is currently experence an upswing in occupancy rates. [Roy Mattappalli]

Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) and Singapore Hotels Association (SHA) have come to a preliminary agreement for a series of collaborations aimed at developing the hospitality industry in both entities.

The agreement was reached by SCTDA director general HE Mohamed A Al Noman, and SHA executive director Margaret Heng, at a meeting at the ITB Asia exhibition, held in Singapore in October.

Al Noman said the meeting has acted as a bridge that would strengthen relations between the two countries, declaring it a “major step” towards developing mutual tourism activities between the two states.

“It presents a chance for us to connect with other cultures and come up with innovative ideas that will help to establish strong partnerships in the future,” commented Al Noman.

“The new hotel classification system that we have implemented in Sharjah has led hospitality facilities to compete against each other to improve their classifications.

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“This has already improved the overall standard of the emirate's tourism products and since the demand for these products is projected to increase substantially over the next five years now that the market is maturing and heading towards recovery, we need to continue to work on improving them in all possible ways,” he added.

Al Noman also met with representatives from the Singapore Tourism Board to exchange information and suggestions for reaching a mutual understanding concerning training courses and expertise exchange programmes.

The emirates activities in Singapore follow an announcement by Al Noman that Sharjah was beginning to experience an upswing in occupancy rates.

“We are closely monitoring the performance of Sharjah's hotels and we are very pleased to say that they have rebounded from the lowest levels, which occurred at the end of 2008,” he said.

“We are currently experiencing occupancy rates of around 75%, which is in line with the figures recorded at the same time last year.”