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| “The New Panacea for Entertainment – UAE!” (#630) |
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| Written by Stinger Report | |
| Thursday, 24 April 2008 | |
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Stinger REPORT Skinny! (25/03/08) The Middle East’s United Arab Emirates (UAE) looks to offer the richest pickings for the future of the attraction and entertainment market. Projects ranging from ‘Animation Land’, ‘Sea World’, ‘JOYPOLIS’, and ‘Dubai Land’ are just some of the new developments – a move towards gathering 15 million visitors a year to the UAE, and a total change in the power structure of the themed entertainment industry from America to the Middle East. The Stinger charts the initial moves towards this new development.
Main REPORT: It would be impossible to keep up with the vast and hurried development in entertainment venues that has gripped the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – the seven Middle East federation states (Emirates) represented by Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain – encompassing a 4 million population, with the largest city being Dubai, a near-world beater on size and style.A predominately Muslim citizenry, the territory represents an important melting pot of cultures and methodologies that is actively embracing the leisure entertainment industry. This embrace by the rulers of the Emirates could be seen as a move away from utilizing limited natural resources and the dependency on its petrochemical industry, and looking toward new development in other areas. . The current ruler of Dubai, hoping to rival New York and London for tourist traffic by 2015 (a target of 15 million visitors each year), is using the vast oil revenues to create a centre of commerce, leisure and hospitality. The current ruler of Dubai hoping to create using vast oil based spending, commerce, residential, leisure and hospitality that will rival New York and London for tourist traffic by 2015 (a target of 15 million visitors each year). Of the $350billion worth of construction projects active in the UAE, the theme park, visitor attraction and mixed-use entertainment business has a lion’s share, with some of the biggest names in the entertainment field involved in extensive partnerships with the Emirates’ leading corporations. This is part of a $1.006trillion leisure project investment across the Middle East. - Theme Parks One of the latest to mark out territory for their brand in the market is DreamWorks – the ambitious movie production house (formed by Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen) had its own plans to surmount Hollywood, but has been restructured following near bankruptcy and then it acquisition – to become a subsidiary of Paramount Motion Pictures Group (owned by Viacom). Aspirations of beating Disney still remain and a plan to use the extensive DreamWorks brand library has seen signing an agreement with Tatweer, the subsidiary of Dubai Holdings (a State governmental owned investment firm). The proposed project will see a million dollar extension to the Dubailand theme park, built on the outskirts of Dubai city with attractions, restaurants and retail space. Under the working title of Animationland, the current concept sees the use of the Dreamworks successful animation library work like Shrek. The subsidiary of Dubai Holdings (a State governmental owned investment firm) announced in 2007 that they had signed an extensive agreement with Universal to develop Universal Studios, as a part of the Dubailand facility. The addition of a new $2.2billion destination to the expanding Dubailand in 2010 marks a new level of development – the Universal resort will include all of the key attractions known from the Hollywood and Florida versions of the franchise. Many of these will be updated and re-developed into four zones – hoping to attract 5million visitors a year. The Dubailand facility has become an example of the ambitious plans that the UAR has for its themed entertainment aspirations. 2008 will see one of the most expensive new projects for the park – Restless Planet has been reported as costing $1billion to develop, incorporating 109 animatronics dinosaurs using the latest in next-gen animatronic technology with interactive guest interaction with the characters. Not all the big park developments surround Dubailand. It was announced at the end of 2007 that the hospitality, tourism and investment company Ruwaad Holdings had signed a far-reaching agreement with the movie giant Paramount Pictures licensing division. The agreement is to work together to develop a proposed $2.5billion theme park in the Emirates using much of the Paramount stable of licenses. The venue would be a lifestyle facility with themed retail and restaurants adding to the mix of attractions. The resort-style facility is expected to be completed by 2012. The developments keep coming to Dubai. Bush Entertainment Corporation (BEC) announced in February that in an agreement with one of the world’s largest property developers – Nakheel PJSC – they will together create a major theme park development on the massive The Palm Jebel Ali complex on Dubai Island. Under the Worlds of Discovery -- SeaWorld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove brands -- the complex will be the largest resort including a water park and theme park. The first phase scheduled to open in 2012. It is the importance that major movie brands give to the UAE that show that the theme park market will be re-invented in this territory. - Mixed-Entertainment Facilities The embracing of the latest technology is a fundamental component of the UAE development of leisure within their territory. This will also see the inclusion of the latest Out-of-Home interactive entertainment technology. To mark this, one of the largest amusement companies has signed to be part of the UAE revolution. Announced in January 2008, SEGA announced that it had partnered with Dubai Emaar Properties. Emaar (responsible for the vast Dubai Mall which is claimed to be the largest shopping mall in the world) agreed to develop with SEGA a version of their JOYPOLIS indoor interactive entertainment theme park for the UAE market (along with plans for additional sites in North Africa and South Asia). The proposed first development is set to open at the end of 2008 in the vast mall – and will be developed along the same lines as the Japanese original venues, with indoor roller-coasters, interactive mid-size attractions, amusement and dining. This is the biggest development of the JOYPLIS brand since the failed 1990’s SEGA World international aspirations. It has to be remembered the import of the UAE spend, with leisure investment including Dubai with $381.4billion worth of projects either in construction or on the design table; followed by Saudi Arabia with $184.4billion, Abu Dhabi at $131.3billion, and Tatweer with $170billion. Many numbers are bandied about regarding the vast sums invested in the entertainment scene – most recently a claim of $10billion a year is being spent on projects in the Middle East. Breaking News – Dubai-based investment firm Zabeel Investment was revealed to have acquired a 50 per cent stake in the Las Vegas hospitality firm The Light Group. The acquisition is hoped to allow Zabeel to develop a series of hotel, restaurant and entertainment venues in the Middle East. Zabeel is not the first UAE operation that has acquired controlling investment in hospitality and entertainment operations aimed at bringing their expertise into the vast development in the USA. |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 24 April 2008 ) |
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