Middle East magic
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single currency has stopped and many say has diminished in intensity, while the six countries in the GCC cannot even agree on what the “weekend” consists of….in some countries it is Friday and Saturday, while Saudi insists on Thursday and Friday. For some, such as the Bahraini FECs across the Causeway which links the island to the Saudi mainland, it is a positive boon. They get the crowds out for three days - their own people on Friday and Saturday and the Saudis flooding over the Causeway for shopping and fun on Thursday and Friday. But Saudi is where the big companies are. The Al Hokair
The Oceanica FEC at the Galleria Mall, Riyadh, is a giant family entertainment centre with a maritime theme, many water-inspired rides and even a museum. It is one of the Al Hokair locations in Saudi Arabia.
Further up the coast the Ice Land Waterpark and Planet
Earth Theme Park, already mentioned, are opening at Ras Al Khaimah. But at the height of the financial problems Gondolania opened in Doha and more recently MAF’s six-segment Playnation opened at Mirdif, Dubai. We also saw more openings in Saudi, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait, notably Tandeem’s 360 Degrees giant FEC which is opening in stages, and many others. The power-base of the FEC business in the Middle East
is in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or KSA as most call it. That is because much of the wealth is centred there and it is the largest in both land area and population of any of the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Countries). The GCC was an attempt to create a kind of European Community of Arab countries in the region and to a degree it has succeeded, but not all of the way. The progress towards a
Group has 70 theme parks and FECs, 50 of which fit the latter description and some of them are out of this world. Competitor Al Othair has another 30 and in many cases owns the malls themselves as well. Saudi probably has 150 family entertainment centres and let us not become confused. A family entertainment centre is as far removed from “amusement arcade” as McDonald’s is from a Michelin-starred restaurant (no offence). It is anything between 1,500 sq m and 15,000 sq m. It may have a roller coaster under its air-conditioned roof and another 10 or 15 major theme park rides, plus 100 or even 200 coin- operated games, except that they are nearly all coupled on to a debit card system which simultaneously gives a wealth of management information. It is all very high- tech, all very up-to-date…no tired old games here…. beautifully run, immaculately presented, thickly populated by uniformed staff and smiles are everywhere. The other biggest name in the region, Majid al
Futtaim Leisure, has its Mirdif City Centre project now almost fully open in Dubai, but its Magic Planet at Mirdif is its tenth spread across the Middle East from Egypt to Lebanon. Its head of operations, Craig Hart, sees Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as the expanding territories. So does Prakash Vivekanand, who runs ASI, the biggest supplier based in the region. “The past year has seen a number of major projects
completed in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Syria and Jordan,” he said. “These were markets where we had the bulk of our new business during the year. Ethiopia is also showing signs of expansion and we have signed up one project there with three more on the way.” Ethiopia, he said, was still some way behind India
in terms of developing its FEC market – and India is still some distance behind the Middle East, just to put everything into perspective. But the indications from Ethiopia are very positive.
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