marina development focus
We focus very much on the uniqueness of the location. If you understand the market and the culture, and if your facility and operation is well put together, then each destination will have its own appeal
Middle Eastern they wanted to bring their boats home to Bahrain, Dubai, Oman, so our model adapted as we realised the complexity of the demand,” he adds. Both Aldar and Mourjan are developing individual marinas
3
but with a bigger picture focus on creating regional networks, as Horrigan explains: “Trends change, so from our point of view we deal in the networking of marinas. We talk very little about competition between marinas; the more well-designed, successful marinas there are, then the stronger the industry is. We focus on the cruise time between facilities because we want our boat owners to get out there and move around.” Lane continues: “It allows customers choice. One issue with
marinas in the market at the moment is that they’re full and we don’t want that to happen in our marinas because it is just as important to get the yachts to move around. “The most important thing we’ve done within the design of our
marinas is the commitment to destination yachting. If you look at Yas Marina we have a 400-metre long visitor event jetty, and Al Bandar will have a 250-metre-long one.” According to Lane, Yas Marina receives an average of 50
visiting vessels each month, for everything from a lunch stop-off to an overnight stay. “That destination yachting lifestyle has never existed here before, and so we will always have an area designated for those people who don’t have annual berths,” he says.
DRIVING DESTINATIONS
The marina model isn’t ‘one size fits all’ and regional differences have the potential to drive new business into new destinations. Horrigan says: “When people talk about Asia or the Middle East they tend to think about it monolithically, with all locations and cultures being the same. But the needs and expectations, and the application of what is a good solution for a specific location, differs from Abu Dhabi and Dubai to Oman, Jeddah and Morocco. “So we focus very much on the uniqueness of the location. If you understand the market and the culture,
and if your facility and operation is well put together, then each destination will have its own appeal. So even within the confined space of the Gulf, each location offers a different option. And if we do it right, people will move through all of them. “We probably wouldn’t be courageous enough to make the move if we weren’t getting the feedback from the boat owners themselves. We saw the Mediterranean moving East, and as a lot of large boat owners are
14 /
/jun-sep 2010
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