UAE theme parks: A smooth ride

dubai - Close to four million tourists are expected to visit the UAE's various theme parks by the end of 2017

While temperatures across the UAE continue to soar, residents and visitors alike say that there is little reason for them to stay at home; not when there are several theme parks that offer a whole day of fun.

Theme parks are a well-known point of interest among several leading family tourism destinations across the world. The UAE, with its many theme parks that have opened doors in recent years, is set to follow suit.

One of the most eagerly anticipated theme park openings early in the year was that of Dubai Parks and Resorts, which comprises of Legoland Dubai, Motiongate, and Bollywood Parks.

Vinit Danesh Shah, chief strategy and business development officer at DXB Entertainments, operators of Dubai Parks and Resorts, explained that the park would prove to be a major factor in the country's tourism scene in the coming years.

"You have to look at the destination from a global perspective," he told Khaleej Times. "The way we visualised the destination was as a global family entertainment venue that would join the likes of other theme parks in Orlando and Paris."

Both these cities, he said, get a lot of annual visitors that come for the sole purpose of spending some time and bonding with their friends and family at destinations such as Universal Studios and Disneyland.

"Travellers spend two to three days there on average with their families and friends creating new memories. They will be sure to take a lot of pictures and videos to show others back home, and will even decide to come back again in the future. This is exactly what we wanted to do; and we noticed that a gap existed all the way from Paris to Singapore. Between these two cities, there was no destination which offered such entertainment offerings," Shah said.

Shah also believes that the more theme park players that enter the market, the better it will be for the industry. "Just looking at the wealth of offerings that the UAE has will make travellers eager to visit and for longer periods of time; the retailers benefit, the hotels benefit, and the airlines benefit."

Asked about visitor numbers, he revealed that footfall at the end of 2016 was recorded at over 320,000. Visits to the park in the first quarter of 2017 exceeded 500,000.

"Going into the summer, we are going to be focusing mainly on our tour and travel business," Shah said. "We are also looking at how we can increase visitor numbers from key source markets such as the GCC, India, Russia, UK, Germany, and China. The plan for 2018 is going to be very similar and our focus will continue to remain on these markets, in addition to our domestic visitors."

He added: "We look at Dubai as our base; the city brings in around 15 million international visitors every year. Early on, we knew that this was the demographic that we had to be focusing on so we opened representative offices in over six different countries, including the UK and China, to promote the product."

According to Colliers International, close to four million tourists are expected to visit the UAE's various theme parks by the end of 2017. That number is expected to hit 19 million by 2020. Colliers also revealed that 70-72 per cent of the visitors are domestic, while 16-18 per cent are regional, and international visitors account for 10-11 per cent of traffic.

Jesse Vargas, general manager of Ferrari World, also noted that a large percentage of Ferrari World's visitation comes from Dubai.
"Beyond Dubai, the GCC is our local home base," he said. "However, we also see a lot of visitors come in from all around the world including China, India, the UK, Europe, and the Americas even. Ever since our opening, we have had over 167 nationalities come in to the destination. Also, we have set a record for attendance every single year, and the same is true for our guest satisfaction results. This is important for us because we count on our guests to tell their friends and family about the good time that they had at the park."

Vargas also noted that the attraction has been a cornerstone on the UAE's tourism scene since its opening. "One factor that has helped us, has been our sister attraction, Yas Waterworld."

Speaking about how the theme park industry in the UAE has evolved over the years, Vargas explained: "Moving into the future, we know that it is not just about Ferrari World Abu Dhabi anymore. It's about making sure that all the offerings on Yas Island are given a chance to shine. We now look at traveller and tourist packages that allow visitors to spend more time on the island, and by extension, more time in the UAE."

He further revealed that all the tourism players on the island have dedicated themselves to welcoming 40 million visitors to the island by 2021.
Bianca Sammut, general manager of Yas Waterworld, echoed Vargas' observations on the importance of theme parks in the UAE's tourism targets.
"Yas Waterworld plays an important role in attracting international travelers to the country," she said.

- rohma@khaleejtimes.com