Middle East magic
!
bowling, but they are always up to a standard and certainly not down to a price. Big operators are now household names. Al Hokair in
Saudi Arabia is as familiar as Hoover is to vacuum cleaning; Magic Planet throughout the region is synonymous with a safe and air conditioned entertainment environment which often comes with a new twist that no-one else has. But some of the smaller companies also illustrate just what can be done with skill and imagination. The Fun Fair Company in Qatar has created Gondolania in the Villaggio Mall which encompasses just about every element imaginable in an FEC. Water parks are now familiar despite the over-the-top
heat for so much of the year. Wahooo!, the MAF location in Bahrain, has an indoor (air conditioned) waterpark with an outdoor element, so the best of both worlds are available. The same company has its skiing and snowboarding location alongside its Magic Planet in Dubai, but you can also go to the Ferrari F1 motor racing theme park in Abu Dhabi, or see the largest man-made waterfall in the world at WOW RAK in Ras Al Khaimah. The UAE and Saudi are the prime movers in terms of
sophistication and evolution of the industry - and probably of those, Saudi is the leader because it has the population base, but the industry primary movers and shakers have to watch their backs because there are plenty of other countries coming up on the rails. Kuwait has always been a centre of excellence with FECs, recognised by MAF which opened its award-winning Magic Planet FEC there last
year. Bahrain has quality outlets, notably by Magic Island in Seef Properties, Qatar has its Gondolania, but beyond these more expected locations, the Middle East has much more to offer. There are locations opening in Ethiopia, in Egypt,
across North Africa in Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, further north into the Mediterranean area such as the Lebanon, Jordan and inland to Syria and across into Iraq and Iran, even to the south and east in Muscat, Oman and Yemen. In effect, it is the Islamic countries which are the global leaders in evolving the art of indoor FECs. The enormous Dubailand project with its host of
cities, lands, parks, housing projects, sports locations, shopping ventures and “worlds within worlds” may have hit the buffers in the financial fall-out of Dubai, but in essence it has only been placed on to the back- burners pending a turnaround in the economic outlook. And the other projects? Anything started will be
finished; that’s the first rule in the region. Equally, if it hasn’t been started, it will remain on the drawing board until such time as it can get under way. Everything has taken a pace backwards, but they haven’t stopped. Things are still happening. MAF is now opening different phases of its six-edition Mirdif City Centre location in Dubai. This giant shopping complex has half-a-dozen different FECs within it, covering sport, edutainment, interactive scientific learning, a Magic Planet, some now operating and others about to open their doors.
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