JEDDAH: Sharjah, which attracted over 105,000 Saudi tourists in 2008, expects many more travelers to tour the emirate this year.
“Sharjah has a number of tourist attractions including entertainment and shopping, and we hope many more thousands from the Kingdom will head the emirate during the vacation seasons of the year,” a spokesman for the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) said at its road show held at Radisson SAS Hotel yesterday.
The SCTDA delegation included senior representatives from Sharjah Museums Department, Air Arabia, Sharjah Millennium Hotel, Golden Tulip Hotel, Radisson SAS Resort, Verona Resort and Marbella Resort.
“The road show is part of our efforts to encourage regional tourist activities and strengthen tourist ties among GCC countries,” he said. The road show earlier covered three other major GCC destinations including Doha, Kuwait, Dammam and Riyadh.
“Such campaigns focus on highlighting the emirate’s status as a world-class destination for heritage, cultural and family tourism, blending its distinctive attractions to form a unique tourist destination,” SCTDA Chairman Sultan ibn Ahmed Al-Qassimi stated.
The number of hotel facilities in the emirate has increased to 103 (37 hotels and 66 hotel apartments) with 8,000 hotel rooms.
The emirate received 1.5 million visitors in 2008, a significant increase from 600,000 visitors in 2001. And 27 percent of these tourists — or 398,186 — are from GCC countries.
In his presentation, Husain Nalkhanday, Air Arabia’s regional manager for GCC, Yemen and Iran, said Sharjah’s low cost carrier (LCC) was the first one to go public in the Middle East. It has 40,000 shareholders. “Our fares are cheaper by 20 to 25 percent compared to the legacy airlines because our overheads are minimal, we are ticketless, we have a web-based distribution that offers a simple and quick online booking process, we sell food and drinks on board, we have a faster turnaround, we have a standardized Airbus A320 fleet, and we have no fancy offices. Yet, we don’t compromise on safety and reliability,” Nalkhanday said.
The LCC, which has won several accolades, has a fleet of 18 new A320 aircraft and serves 46 destinations across the Gulf, the Middle East, the subcontinent and North Africa including Sudan and Egypt. The carrier added its 14th Indian destination when it started operating to the western state of Goa yesterday. It has regular services to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. It is adding Athens to its list of destinations from April 21.
“Those who book early get the advantage of low fares,” Nalkhanday said emphasizing that the fare structure depends on the forces of supply and demand. “Fares go up when demand is high and they go down when it drops,” he said. He also mentioned that the carrier facilitates the issuance of 96-hour visas, as well as visit visas for the UAE.
Salman Faris Abdulla, Air Arabia’s manager for the Kingdom said: Although the global economic crisis had affected all, we are among the least affected carriers.”