Water parks are creating waves in the UAE tourism industry. Abu Dhabi expects to open its first major water attraction by the end of next year as part of the US$40 billion (Dh146.92bn) Yas Island development programme.
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Costing about Dh604 million the park is designed to have more than 40 rides and attractions including scuba diving, cable skiing - a form of water skiing - and a "lazy river" boat ride.
Aldar, the developer, is confident the new Yas attraction will be a major tourism draw.
"We will have four one-of-a-kind rides that have never been seen before in a water park," says the company. Development is well under way with "work on the substructures of the park's buildings nearing completion".
Yas Island will be banking on the water park to help pull in the tourists. Dubai has two and they have proved to be very popular.
Jumeirah Group's Wild Wadi is located between the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the Burj Al Arab, while Aquaventure is part of the $1.5bn Atlantis resort on the Palm Jumeirah.
Last month, both were ranked in the world's top 20 most visited water parks in a survey conducted by Aecom, a support services company, and the Themed Entertainment Association (Tea).Wild Wadi attracted 690,000 visitors last year, while Aquaventure brought in more than 1 million, according to Aecom and the association.
"Water parks work very well for the climate here," says David Camp, the vice president for economics at Aecom in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. "They appeal during the hot summer because it cools people off.
"Water parks in other parts of the world can be a seasonal business - an industry that works when there's school holidays and so on," he says.
"Other parks such as the Orlando that topped the [top 20] list are more year-round, better climate. Dubai also fits into that year-round business operation."
Incorporating a water-themed park into a major hotel complex can also reap dividends and pull in tourists. Owners of luxury projects in the UAE have started to look for attractions that stand out from the crowd.
"A large proportion of [current] water park visitors are actually hotel guests and the two work well together," says Mr Camp.
"The hotel provides guests for the water park; the water park sets the hotel apart in terms of business model and encouraging people to come.
"With a significant number of hotel rooms for both of the [Dubai] parks, a good chunk of their visitors are effectively on-site hotel guests," he adds. "It's a slightly different dynamic to the American parks that are stand-alone and full fee-paying."
The Yas water park will be surrounded by seven hotels and will complement the island's two main attractions, Ferrari World and the Formula One racetrack.
In purely economic terms, water attractions make sense.
They are relatively cheap to build compared with theme parks, and their operational costs are highly attractive.
"If I can drive my volume I can drive profitability," says Scott Deisley, the vice president of Aquaventure at Atlantis, The Palm. "It doesn't cost me any more to have a 100 people in the park than it does to have 10."
The vast majority of Aquaventure's guest are tourists. This year the park launched a discounted rate for UAE residents of Dh140 for a ticket instead of Dh200. Its hotel guests get free access.
Even though Aquaventure is in direct competition with Wild Wadi, Mr Deisley believes the rivalry has generated increased demand.
"I think that we were all a little concerned about whether there was a market for both Wild Wadi and ourselves," he says.
"What we've done is actually created more of a market."
The other major water parks in the UAE are Dreamland in Umm Al Qaiwain and the WOW RAK Iceland in Ras Al Khaimah.
Others planned for Dubai, including a development called Aqua Dunya, which was supposed to be the world's largest water park and part of Dubailand, have been put on hold.
Aquaventure is now planning to expand attractions after Wild Wadi added two new rides at the beginning of this year.
"We all know that we need to invest in the park to keep it interesting for people," says Mr Deisley.
"My fingers are crossed that we could get something started next year."
rbundhun@thenational.ae
The White Lotus: Season three
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Specs
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
If you go
The flights
There are various ways of getting to the southern Serengeti in Tanzania from the UAE. The exact route and airstrip depends on your overall trip itinerary and which camp you’re staying at.
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Kilimanjaro International Airport from Dh1,350 return, including taxes; this can be followed by a short flight from Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti with Coastal Aviation from about US$700 (Dh2,500) return, including taxes. Kenya Airways, Emirates and Etihad offer flights via Nairobi or Dar es Salaam.
Company profile
Name: Fruitful Day
Founders: Marie-Christine Luijckx, Lyla Dalal AlRawi, Lindsey Fournie
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2015
Number of employees: 30
Sector: F&B
Funding so far: Dh3 million
Future funding plans: None at present
Future markets: Saudi Arabia, potentially Kuwait and other GCC countries
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Contracted list
Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Matt Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye.
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
