Close to Dubai, Sharjah has its own appeal to visitors – at more moderate prices

Sharjah is already a well-known destination for many tourists and businesses. Geographically contiguous with Dubai, the third largest emirate has an international airport, which includes the biggest air cargo hub in the whole of the Middle East and Africa region.

This has helped facilitate not just trade, but also an influx of people keen to learn more about local culture and to experience some of Sharjah’s own delights. A centre of regional culture – it was once crowned UNESCO’s Arab world cultural capital – the emirate also boasts beaches aplenty, luxury resorts and a variety of shopping malls. The Blue Souq, for example, is a sprawling market with around 600 outlets selling everything from gold and expensive Persian rugs to local souvenirs.

While tourism remains a high priority for the local authorities, trade and investment has soared, with Sharjah offering its own unique incentives, as well as enjoying any overspill from Dubai. Sitting on about 5 per cent of the UAE’s gross oil and gas reserves, the emirate has tapped these resources to take a lead in other areas. Indeed, Sharjah accounts for approximately 40 per cent of the UAE’s industrial GDP, reflecting both the strength and depth of its economy. Last year, gross domestic product grew by 19 per cent to £5.6 billion, compared with £5.01 billion in 2005.

Proximity to Dubai means that many people commute, taking advantage of Sharjah’s typically lower cost of living. Real estate development, like elsewhere in the UAE, is also a booming market.

The Sharjah International Airport is one of the emirate’s key selling points, just 10 minutes away from Sharjah city centre. The airport dates back to 1932 when Imperial Airways, a forerunner to British Airways, constructed an airfield as a stopover en route to India and Australia. At that time, Sharjah ranked as one of the airline’s more remote outposts as well as being the first airport in the country.

Today, it has the capacity to handle around 8 million passengers every year and still continues to grow. It is also a hugely successful transshipment hub, especially for inter-modal cargo. The airport offers some of the fastest transit times for cargo being shipped in by sea and flown out by air: approximately six hours. This is partly because the seaports are located on both sides of the Sharjah coast, two in the Gulf on the UAE’s western coast, and one in the Gulf of Oman, on the UAE’s eastern coast.

The two principal ports are Mina (port) Khalid in Sharjah City and Khor Fakkan on the east coast. Located at these strategic air and maritime hubs are some of the UAE’s most successful free zones, notably the Sharjah International Airport Free Zone and the Hamriyah Free Zone, with its deep sea port connections, which handle some of the world’s biggest ocean-going vessels.
Sharjah was the first place in the Middle East to install fully equipped container facilities and has enjoyed the massive growth in the global container market of recent years.

A further reflection of Sharjah’s international credentials is its Expo Centre, a state-of-the-art meeting point for business conventions and trade fairs which draws people from across the Middle East and the wider world.

The city of Sharjah also holds great appeal for visitors, full of beautiful waterfront hotels, mosques, parks and gardens. Within touching distance of Dubai, it offers visitors more of the luxury and splendour familiar throughout the UAE, but at a more relaxed pace, and with more moderate pricing.