international hub attractions Abu Dhabi’s White Fort Q&A
eighbouring bu habi is playing catch-up with this year’s opening of the Warner Bros. World theme park on as Island. ultural attractions will be in the spotlight in 2019 as the emirate opens its restored historic asr l osn district, known as the White ort, this month ecember 201. There is also potentially the long- awaited unveiling of the 0 million Salvator Mundi painting by eonardo a inci at bu habi’s ouvre gallery the artwork was originally due to be put on display in eptember 201 until an unexplained last-minute delay. atar will also be enhancing its cultural credentials with the opening of the ational Museum of atar in oha on March 28, which was designed by rench architect ean ouvel as a series of interlocking disks, inspired by the desert rose. slightly less highbrow attraction is the recently opened ngry Birds theme park in oha estival ity. Elsewhere in the ulf region, as l haimah continues to target the more adventurous traveller with the launch of the ebel ais zip line tour in ebruary 2019, featuring seven zip lines from the nited rab Emirates’ highest mountain.
Looking further east, Merlin has just opened its first eppa ig World of lay attraction in Shanghai, as well as a new hanghai ungeon in the hinese city.
Europe While European destinations can’t match
the scale of what’s going on in the and Middle East, there are still plenty of developments.
Merlin Entertainments has opened its first 20 million Bear rylls dventure in the city of Birmingham, which offers activities such as diving, rock-climbing and indoor sky-diving, inspired by the exploits of the British adventurer. lso in the , Warwick astle will be launching The alconer’s uest, a new attraction featuring displays with birds of prey, from Easter 2019.
ike its lorida sister park, isneyland aris will also be focusing on Star Wars in 2019 with the egends of the orce elebration of tar Wars, running from anuary 12 to March 1. Meanwhile, olland’s Efteling will be
introducing a new fairy-tale attraction in autumn 2019 The ix wans will be based on a Brothers rimm fairy tale and feature a mini-ride for younger visitors and castle monument.
Dominique Sidley lobal trade strategy director, Merlin Entertainments
Which international source markets has Merlin been targeting this year? We have spent a huge amount of energy in the sian markets and we are seeing dividends this year, particularly from hina, which is becoming an important source market for our south-east sian, ustralian, apanese and attractions. We are receiving more and more IT fully independent travellers, which is starting to replace a lot of the group travel business. gain, this is particularly prevalent from sia. This is to be expected as confidence in travel grows within this market and, of course, as a result of improvements in visa approvals. The is also a strong travelling market and its improving economy, together with favourable exchange rates, are key enablers.
Pic caption for here please
What are your new developments and attractions for 2019? Merlin is constantly investing in new rides, attractions, products and
54 wtm insights winter 2018
experiences across our estate of more than 120 attractions worldwide, which is what makes this company so exciting to be a part of and, of course, how we delight so many visitors every year. I am particularly excited about ego Movie World at egoland lorida opening in spring 2019. To celebrate this during WTM ondon, we had some amazingly wrapped ondon taxis travelling about, showcasing the best lorida has to offer.
How important is the global travel trade to your business? lobal travel trade sales are one of the core pillars of Merlin’s business. We have an amazing B2B trade team who work in partnership with the key trade agents to develop campaigns of mutual benefit that bring some of the best brands in the industry to tourists from around the globe.
How have you been helping the trade to sell your products? ur trading partnerships have to be a
two-way collaboration, which means we invest heavily in developing the relationships where we are in harmony with each other’s business goals. We create collateral, product offerings and tactical campaigns to support these
relationships and we are working tirelessly to improve the digital guest journey to provide a seamless operational delivery that deepens the engagement and experience for our mutual customers.
Do you have plans to enhance your relationship with the travel trade in 2019? We are further investing in our I application programming interface connectivity, we are developing more global agreements and we are using the breadth of offer and appeal of our numerous brands to create new and exciting product content. In addition, we will continue with our work on mobile payment types and our Wehat mini-programmes to ensure we can best serve our customers in this digital world.
wtm.com
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