Ras Al Khaimah developer Marjan says it expects the emirate's tourism sector to return to pre-downturn visitor numbers by 2027, as a wave of major projects — including the $5.7 billion Wynn Al Marjan Island resort and new Jebel Jais mountain developments — come online.
Alison Grinnell, Group Chief Operating Officer of Marjan, told Gulf News: "I think we'll be pretty much back to pre numbers in 2027." Wynn Al Marjan Island, one of the region's largest tourism investments, is scheduled to open in September 2027.
Alongside it, Jebel Jais is being developed into an adventure-tourism hub, with an 80km network of hiking trails and a 20km via ferrata route split across four sections. Marjan Beach, meanwhile, is being built out to eventually house 22,000 residential units and 12,000 hotel keys, with a projected population of 74,000 residents and capacity for 180,000 visitors annually, spanning 3km of beachfront and 6.5 million square feet of green space. A new business district, RAK Central, is also due to open in September 2027.
On the infrastructure challenge of scaling up so quickly, Grinnell said: "When you open something like Wynn... we have to make sure that all of the infrastructure, the ecosystem, is there." The comments point to a broad, coordinated push by Ras Al Khaimah to build out roads, utilities and services in tandem with its hospitality pipeline, positioning the emirate for a significant jump in both resident population and annual visitor numbers over the next two years.