Balancing tourism development with care for cultural heritage in Ras Al Khaimah

What are tour­ism offi­cials in the United Arab Emir­ates’ north­ern-most mem­ber doing to lever­age and pro­tect the cul­tur­al her­it­age of 7,000 years of history? 

Raki Phil­lips, CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tour­ism Devel­op­ment Author­ity, lets us know.

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [Thanks to “GT” Insight Part­ner the World Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation for Cul­ture and Her­it­age (WTACH) for invit­ing Raki to write this, his second, “GT” Insight. You too can write a “GT” Insight.]

Tour­ism is one of the largest, most dynam­ic, and fast­est devel­op­ing eco­nom­ic sec­tors in the world. It cre­ates employ­ment, con­trib­utes to GDP growth, attracts invest­ment, and enhances the qual­ity of life. For these reas­ons, it is a cent­ral pil­lar of Ras Al Khaimah’s eco­nom­ic growth and diver­si­fic­a­tion strategy. 

At the Ras Al Khaimah Tour­ism Devel­op­ment Author­ity we want to make sure that we not only devel­op the Emir­ate but also show­case its rich his­tory and cul­ture, which is also what I want to focus on in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. 

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“Cul­ture, cul­tur­al her­it­age, & history”

As the north­ern-most emir­ate in the United Arab Emir­ates (UAE), Ras Al Khaimah is one of the most diverse and the fast­est grow­ing des­tin­a­tions in the region. This is thanks to our stun­ning sur­round­ings, stretch­ing from pristine beaches and lush man­groves to rolling ter­ra­cotta desert dunes and beau­ti­ful Hajar moun­tains, includ­ing the highest moun­tain in the UAE, Jebel Jais. 

Equally we have an incred­ible his­tory dat­ing back more than 7,000 years to the Bronze Age. This makes the Emir­ate one of the old­est con­tinu­ously inhab­ited regions in the world. It’s home to three Ara­bi­an tri­bal tra­di­tions that thrived across coastal, moun­tain, and desert land­scapes which can still be exper­i­enced today.

As defined by UNWTO, “cul­tur­al tour­ism” is centred on cul­tur­al attrac­tions and products. It is one of the fast­est-grow­ing seg­ments of the tour­ism industry, account­ing for an estim­ated 40% of all tour­ism worldwide. 

Here in Ras Al Khaimah, we have made con­cer­ted efforts to sus­tain­ably devel­op our tour­ism sec­tor through cul­tur­al tour­ism. This has led to not only the pro­tec­tion of our nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age, but also new job cre­ation and the regen­er­a­tion of rur­al and urb­an areas as well. 

With the incred­ible rate of devel­op­ment and rap­id urb­an­isa­tion that has trans­formed the UAE in the space of a single gen­er­a­tion, it can be easy to over­look the ori­gin­al Emir­ati com­munit­ies who were the founders of this great nation. 

We ensure that vis­it­ors can enjoy an authen­t­ic and eas­ily access­ible Ara­bi­an exper­i­ence that reflects the rich his­tory of our nation, and thus we have worked hard to deliv­er an enrich­ing and enlight­en­ing jour­ney of exploration. 

Cultural heritage challenges met with co-operation

One of the chal­lenges of devel­op­ing her­it­age tour­ism products is ensur­ing that truly authen­t­ic exper­i­ences are delivered while pre­serving the cul­ture and rich his­tory, and without com­mod­it­ising or appro­pri­at­ing tra­di­tion­al practices. 

This is why we work extremely closely with the Depart­ment of Antiquit­ies and Museums as well as lead­ing archae­olo­gic­al experts and tri­bal rep­res­ent­at­ives to ensure that the unique tra­di­tions and cul­tures of Ras Al Khaimah’s moun­tain, desert, and coastal tribes are protected. 

Our cul­tur­al sus­tain­ab­il­ity pro­jects include the three-phased res­tor­a­tion pro­gram at Al Jazirah Al Hamra, with the aim to pre­serve the his­tory while mak­ing it access­ible for vis­it­ors to learn first-hand accounts of the loc­al culture. 

Four of our his­tor­ic­al sites have also been included in UNESCO’s tent­at­ive list of World Her­it­age Sites: Al Jazirah Al Hamra, Jul­far, Shi­m­al, and Dhayah Fort. 

This has played an import­ant role in help­ing to retain more than 5,000 years of the region’s his­tory with­in these sites. To show­case this to vis­it­ors we have launched a bespoke tour of the key archae­olo­gic­al sites.

… and a respect for the land

In the con­text of the fast­est grow­ing des­tin­a­tion in the region, we also face the chal­lenge of strik­ing a bal­ance between launch­ing new attrac­tions, hotels, and exper­i­ences and pro­tect­ing the Emirate’s greatest asset: its stun­ning nature and topography. 

In our efforts to pre­serve our nat­ur­al attrac­tions and spread aware­ness of the import­ance of con­ser­va­tion-related tour­ism we have intro­duced sev­er­al sus­tain­able exper­i­ences and initiatives. 

We work with EarthCheck, the glob­al sus­tain­able tour­ism experts, to co-cre­ate genu­ine sus­tain­able prac­tices that pre­serve loc­al his­tory, cul­ture, and traditions. 

Examples of this include tour­ism area clean-ups for Jebel Jais, Rams Har­bor, and Wadi Showka; increased recyc­ling prac­tices; reduced food wastage and water and energy con­sump­tion across all hotels; and the launch of the Green Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment pro­gram to sup­port the adop­tion of sus­tain­able sourcing policies.

Also see Raki Phil­lip’s first “GT” Insight
“Sus­tain­able tourism’s end­less bal­an­cing act”

Look­ing ahead at our devel­op­ment strategy, we have inves­ted half a bil­lion dirhams (~USD 136 mil­lion) to devel­op sus­tain­able tour­ism pro­jects in the Emir­ate, under­lined by our philo­sophy to pro­mote an under­stand­ing of the rich cul­ture and aes­thet­ic nat­ur­al envir­on­ment of Ras Al Khaimah. 

All of this con­trib­utes to our goal in becom­ing the region­al lead­er in sus­tain­able tour­ism by 2025 and our com­mit­ment to con­scious growth to pro­tect the envir­on­ment and cul­ture for future generations. 

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive on travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Ras Al Khaimah arab guide with camel. Source: Ras Al Khaimah Tour­ism Devel­op­ment Author­ity.

About the author 

An Amer­ic­an nation­al and a flu­ent Arab­ic speak­er, Raki Phil­lips has a great under­stand­ing of the Middle East hav­ing worked there since 2005. 

As CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tour­ism Devel­op­ment Author­ity (RAKTDA), Raki is respons­ible for the con­tin­ued growth of the Emir­ate as a world-class des­tin­a­tion for leis­ure and busi­ness travel. This includes col­lab­or­at­ing with key part­ners on brand­ing, stand­ards, infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment, and invest­ment oppor­tun­it­ies. The RAKTDA boss is also tasked with ensur­ing tour­is­m’s con­tri­bu­tion to the eco­nom­ic and social prosper­ity of Ras Al Khaimah and the qual­ity of life for all its residents.

With more than 20 years of exper­i­ence with some of the world’s most renowned hos­pit­al­ity brands, Raki has been recog­nised by Hoteli­er Middle East as one of the “Top 20 Most Power­ful Arab Hoteliers”. 

Raki’s pre­vi­ous role with Inter­na­tion­al Hos­pit­al­ity Con­sult­ing Group, saw him devel­op hotel pro­ject pipelines exceed­ing US$ 5 bil­lion in assets, and nego­ti­ate multi-mil­lion-dol­lar hotel deals for lux­ury brands in more than 25 markets.

Raki Phil­lips holds a Bach­el­or of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion from the Uni­ver­sity of Cent­ral Flor­ida, and a MBA in Organ­iz­a­tion­al Man­age­ment from the Uni­ver­sity of Phoenix, Arizona.

Thanks to “GT” Insight Part­ner the World Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation for Cul­ture and Her­it­age (WTACH) for invit­ing Raki to write this, his second, “GT” Insight.