MARKET REPORT: MIDDLE EAST
KidZania Doha, located in between Hyatt Plaza Mall and Villagio shopping mall, is now well advanced and is expected to open in the first quarter of 2018. This will be the third children’s role play centre (Kidzmondo being another) to open in Doha within the space of 18 months! Previously announced to open in 2016, there’s no news of when
the new National Museum of Qatar or the redeveloped Doha Zoo might open. Unsurprisingly, though, the Government of Qatar seems to be focusing its main effort on the projects related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Concept art for the planned Six Flags park at Dubai Parks and Resorts
For the most part, the established developers continue to focus on shopping mall-related projects using tried and tested concepts. Some of the larger scale, more innovative projects are, one way or another, government-led initiatives from players with little or no previous inexperience of the leisure and attractions industry. The latter strategy is not without risk and even though it’s still early
days for the new parks and attractions, two things seem clear. There’s nothing wrong with the quality of what’s been built; they are a good foundation for the industry to grow from, but theme parks and cultural tourism are a new market for the UAE and its going to take longer than we’d all hoped for these facilities to hit their visitor targets and for the volume of tourists to be even close to that of Orlando. Dubai’s target of achieving 20 million international tourists by 2020
remains a possibility but is perhaps less likely than it once was. With 14.9 million international visitors in 2016, however, the Emirate is getting very close to catching up with its other key benchmark, Singapore, which had 16.4 million visitors in 2016. What Dubai is placing much of its faith in as part of its Tourism Vision 2020 is its hosting of that year’s World Expo.
QATAR Here is a particularly interesting example of a country that is in the shopping mall attractions phase with the Mall of Qatar having opened in December 2016 with Kidzmondo and Xtremeland, Doha Festival City due this June with Angry Birds World, Snow Dunes, Juniverse and Virtuocity, and Doha Oasis Mall scheduled for opening later this year with a 28,000 sq m US$ 300 million indoor theme park called Adventure Land, although there has been no news on the latter for some time. The Doha Festival City attractions, in particular, are exciting concepts that will be the first of their type in the region. Construction of
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SAUDI ARABIA Majid Al Futtaim’s (MAF) 300,000 sq m Mall of Saudi project in Riyadh is due to open in 2022. Featuring the country’s first indoor ski slope (MAF also operates Ski Dubai), it continues the shopping mall attractions trend within the kingdom, although the establishment last May of the General Authority for Entertainment suggests the Government is committed to growing both the scope and number of attractions. It was announced just last November that up to three Six Flags
theme parks are planned for Saudi Arabia. The first is tentatively planned for Riyadh In 2021, and others may follow in Jeddah, with King Abdullah Economic City north of Jeddah understood to be the most likely location, together with another site on the Red Sea coast. Of note is that Saudi Arabia has a substantial domestic tourism
market and, unlike the UAE, where destination parks and attractions are part of a strategy to grow the number of international tourists, in Saudi the strategy is more seen as part of the government’s drive to diversify the economy, create jobs for Saudi nationals and further grow domestic tourism. As is often the case in the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia is no exception, not all showcase projects run smoothly. Recent updates on
Doha Festival City, Qatar PARK WORLD Handbook & Buyers Guide 2017
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