Dubai's Next Big Niche: Theme-Park Destination

[29yrswithaGApass]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Dubai's Next Big Niche:

Theme-Park Destination

Six Flags, Marvel Among U.S. Firms Planning Attractions

By STEFANIA BIANCHI

June 24, 2008

 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- This Persian Gulf sheikdom is using record oil revenue to secure multibillion-dollar deals with major U.S. entertainment companies in an effort to draw 15 million tourists a year by 2015.

 

One of the world's fastest-growing tourism hotspots, Dubai will invest almost $350 billion on leisure projects during the next 12 years, including a ski resort, a virtual-reality time-travel amusement park and a Jurassic world populated with more than 100 robotic dinosaurs.

 

With the U.S. entertainment market largely flat, theme-park operators are looking to international ventures in the oil-rich Middle East to expand business. Dubai is offering deals U.S. companies can't resist.

 

The emirate, which expects tourism numbers to rise from seven million in 2007, has signed huge deals with Six Flags Inc., the world's largest theme-park company; Dreamworks Animation SKG; the Universal Studios unit of General Electric Co.; Anheuser-Busch Cos.'s Busch Entertainment Corp.; and Marvel Entertainment Inc. to develop amusement parks rivaling those elsewhere. In each case, Gulf-based developers are spending millions of dollars to build the parks, while the U.S. entertainment firms reap the rewards from licensing, royalty and management deals with minimal financial outlay.

 

At more than twice the size of Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, Dubailand will be the pinnacle of the emirate's tourism draw. The $110 billion, 280-square-kilometer development by state-owned real-estate firm Tatweer will include an 11-kilometer strip of themed hotels and sports facilities such as Music City and Tiger Woods's first golf course. Visitors, expected to reach 40,000 a day, will also be able to enjoy a range of attractions already found in the U.S., as well as some that aren't.

 

Six Flags Dubailand will be the first Six Flags project to be developed outside of North America. Dreamworks Animation Park, a $50 million development, will be the studio's first entertainment park, and Marvel's first $900 million Superheroes theme park will feature comic-book figures such as Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk.

 

However, some entertainment experts say the market could quickly become flooded. Orlando, Florida, "took 30-plus years to create a major theme-park destination. It's critical that the launch of projects in Dubai is phased to make sure that demand is built up," says Christian Aaen of Economic Research Associates, a U.S. entertainment-consulting firm.

 

There are also questions over who will fill Dubai's planned -- mostly luxury -- 125,000 hotel rooms scheduled to open by 2015.

 

"Dubai is still a long flight for some regions of the world," says Mr. Aaen. "It also needs to expand its midlevel and budget market to attract a broader tourism base and in particular the family market."

 

Dubai is confident of its plans. "We're not trying to attract one particular type of tourist from just a specific region of the world. Dubai will offer something for everyone," said Eyad Ali Abdul Rahman, acting director of business development at Dubai's tourism department.

 

As well as facing growing competition from other regions planning major entertainment destinations, such as Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and China, Dubai will have to fight off competition closer to home. The Gulf region as a whole is set to invest $3.63 trillion on the leisure industry until 2020, according to London-based research company Global Futures & Foresight.

 

Just a two-hour drive away, Abu Dhabi -- Dubai's bigger and wealthier neighbor -- is positioning itself as a world-class cultural destination. The U.A.E. capital's Saadiyat (or Happiness) Island will be home to an offshoot of Paris's Louvre museum, a Guggenheim museum, a Tadao Ando Maritime Museum and a Zaha Hadid-designed performing-arts center.

 

But Abu Dhabi's appeal won't be limited to the cultural visitor. Like Dubai, it is looking to attract those in search of theme-park fun. It has signed deals with Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. for an entertainment complex based on MGM's library of 4,100 films, which include the Pink Panther, Rocky and James Bond franchises.

 

Warner Brothers Entertainment, a unit of Time Warner Inc., is also planning a theme park, hotel and cinemas across the emirate.

 

Motor enthusiasts will be able to head to Ferrari Land, a Ferrari-themed park, which will include a Formula One grand-prix race track, a twin rollercoaster ride that allows competitors to race against each other and the only Ferrari driving school in the world outside the automaker's base in Maranello, Italy.

 

 

 

 

[gafreak]

Sholdnt six flags worry about putting rides in their america parks first instead of making arab countrys more money!

[GAcoaster]

They should, but basically they're just licensing the name and consulting on the park in Dubai. This deal just makes the company money which will only help matters in the long run. With all the money being put up in Dubai, they get to have someone else fund R&D for all Six Flags parks.

[JetsDevs4Lyf]

^ I was thinking the exact same thing. Considering how bad Dubai wants to bring in this industry, and how much they seem willing to invest into it's success I think it's a great idea for Six Flags to get itself involved out there as the money coming out of Dubai to them will certainly help in keeping things coming at our parks at some point in the future