The new Etihad Rail service should offer a major economic boost to Fujairah, after it was revealed the city’s station was the first on the network to be completed.
While services for the public have yet to begin, senior officials recently took a train to the station in the Sakamkam neighbourhood of Fujairah, near Al Hilal City, to view the station.
The rail service will leave businesses in the emirate well-positioned to benefit from a boost to the local economy, said one expert.
“Improved connectivity has the potential to be a strong driver for Fujairah’s tourism and business travel sectors,” said Jan Hanak, the Radisson Hotel Group’s managing director for the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt and Iraq.
He said the company’s Radisson Blu Resort, Fujairah and its Radisson property in Fujairah City, opening this year, were “well-positioned to benefit once passenger services begin”.
“Greater accessibility will make it easier for residents and visitors from across the UAE to explore Fujairah, supporting domestic leisure demand, corporate travel, and the emirate’s broader tourism and economic growth ambitions,” he added.
The arrival of passenger trains could also increase domestic tourism as the country tries to recover from the Iran war – seen as crucial in advance of a general tourism recovery.
“This domestic demand will play a critical role in stabilising and resetting tourism across the UAE and the wider Gulf region,” said Carlos Cendra, chief marketing officer at the Data Appeal Company, which offers travel analytics.
“Increased travel frequency and improved accessibility will help drive occupancy and gradually restore pricing structures, particularly as hotel rates remain under pressure.”
Mr Cendra said the company’s data shows that UAE hotel rates for the next six months are “around 14.4 per cent lower year-on-year”.
“Etihad Rail therefore acts as both a short-term demand buffer and a long-term growth platform: first by stimulating domestic and regional travel and later by enhancing the international visitor experience once global conditions improve,” he said.
Samir Imran, a UAE-based partner at the consultancy Arthur D Little Middle East, described the rail link to Fujairah as “a game-changer” for the emirate.
“For passengers it makes Fujairah more reachable,” he said. “It makes it much more accessible for the tourists, for the workers.
“It’s not the station itself, it’s what Fujairah will build around it. It’s going to become more of a destination hub for tourism.
“There’s going to be station-area development … there’s a very exciting master plan to develop a mixed-use district around the station, including commercial and residential.”
The railway line will, he said, encourage “a more transit-orientated community” with expected improvements in other mobility offerings, including buses, taxis and autonomous vehicles.
It would also, he suggested, lead to an increase in the number of people who live in other emirates but work in Fujairah, and vice versa.
As a result of the benefits Etihad Rail is expected to bring – linking major ports, manufacturing centres and free zones, for example – he said the scheme should be seen as not so much a transport project but as “economic infrastructure”. More
By John Dennehy
THE NATIONAL
