MARKET REPORT: MIDDLE EAST
when it’s inaugurated on Qatar National Day in December 2021. Over 28 million trips have already been made on Doha Metro since the red, green and gold lines opened in May 2019 confirming Qatar’s readiness to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It promises to be an exciting and well-organised event made all the more promising by the easing of border controls between Qatar’s neighbours and Qatar in January 2021.
Kuwait Similarly, Kuwait also closed all attractions on 15 March 2020 but unlike Qatar has yet to announce a re-opening date. Of note is that there has been no new attraction openings or project announcements for Kuwait since the beginning of 2020 and that Silk City and New Entertainment City, both flagged in last year’s report, as having significant leisure components, continue to be the projects to watch. Silk City (Madinat Al-Hareer) was
announced in 2018. It’s a proposed 250 sq kms economic free zone that would be the world’s largest marine-front project. Four zones are proposed, The Financial Village, The Leisure Village, The Cultural Village, and The Ecological Village. The project has a 15 to 25-year development plan and is expected to cost an estimated US$ 86 billion. The project is not without some controversy, though, and has yet to see any real progress being made despite being announced 3-years ago. Of note is that the project is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (which, interestingly, has its own page in Wikipedia for those who are interested to know more of China’s growing role in the region). Announced in October 2019, the list of
attractions proposed for the 2,650 sq kms New Entertainment City makes the project much the more impressive of the two from a leisure and entertainment perspective. A YouTube video of the park concept posted in January 2021 shows a 17ha outdoor theme park with 6 zones, an indoor theme park that will be envisioned by Ubisoft
Entertainment, a 16ha water park, an aquarium, a dolphin show, a multimedia fountain show in a Central Lagoon, an indoor snow park, a museum and planetarium, and a 25,000-seat sports arena as well as retail, hospitality and residential components with public parks and social entertainment areas, landscaped areas and trails. Let’s continue to hope that they found a good home for the B&M coaster that was in the old Entertainment City that closed in 2016 and was completely demolished in 2020.
Bahrain Bahrain is another country that closed all attractions on 15 March 2020 and apart from one week during the recent Eid Al Fitr holiday has remained closed to this date making life particularly challenging for all existing attraction operators in the Kingdom. Again, though, progress has continued
to be made on a number of new projects in Bahrain with the focus really all being on the 200,000 sqm Marassi Galleria. Marassi Galleria will be home to an array of entertainment and leisure attractions, including a 2,400 sqm aquarium and underwater zoo, a trampoline park, themed rides and games, family entertainment centers, a waterfront dining promenade, a scenic rooftop featuring outdoor activities with panoramic views of the beach and a multi-screen cinema by CINECO, Bahrain’s leading cinema operator. On-line project updates show that work
on Marassi Galleria is now well advanced and that a late 2021 or 2022 partial opening continues to be a strong possibility.
Oman Majid Al Futtaim’s 145,000 sqm Mall of Oman project continues to be one of the key projects to watch in the Sultanate. It will include a 12,000 sqm indoor snow centre and 3,600 sqm of other attractions, including, it is understood, a Little Explorers edutainment centre and a Magic Planet
FEC. Good progress continues to be made on the project with a late 2021 or 2022 opening understood to be a strong possibility. A number of high-profile, Government-
led tourism related projects in Oman are also understood to be making progress, albeit at a very slow rate. Last year, for example, OMRAN moved to acquire the 70% share of Mina Al Sultan Qaboos Waterfront Project in Muscat held by its development partner at that time, Damac, but have since yet to start on site. There have also been no recent site progress reports either on Phase 1 of Hayy Al Sharq, a 1.5 million sqm world-class theme park and water park complex in Barka after a flurry of activity in April 2020 that saw Amusement Logic appointed for the waterpark component of the project and construction contracts awarded for two Rotana hotels, though the Phase 1 Earthworks package is now understood to be out to tender. Like KSA and Kuwait, Oman is also
developing new, long-term mega-city projects that will include a strong leisure component. The two key projects announced to date are the 51 sq km Khazaen Economic City and the 0.5 sq km, US$ 12 billion City of the Future project. Madinat Al Irfan, the joint venture project signed in November 2018 between Majid Al Futtaim and Omran is for Phase 1 of The City of the Future project. The project is a mixed–use development that will include residential, commercial, educational, healthcare, leisure and hospitality facilities. Phase 1 is for the development of 25 hectares over 5- years. Again, there is an absence of any
recent announcements of ongoing progress on these projects, though, they are such strategic projects that there is every reason to believe that away from the spotlight that progress continues to be made. Also on a positive note, levelling of the
land for the US$ 2 billion Yiti Coastal Resort Project, that is to include a range of
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