Three years in the making, the Ice Land Water Park is finally about to open, carrying with it RAK's hopes of becoming a tourist destination in its own right. This icy refuge, part of a $100m theme park complex, is designed with family fun in mind. Anna Zacharias pays a visit Ras Al Khaimah // In the sweltering September heat, the plastic penguins look a little sandy and tired from the Arabian summer.
Yet the story of a group of renegade penguins who make themselves a new home on the Arabian Sea is the theme of a polar-themed water park that backers expect to put RAK on the map as a tourist destination. Featuring a huge man-made waterfall, a rain dance pool and aquatic football field, Ice Land Water Park opens its doors to the public this Wednesday, 28 months after its originally scheduled opening.
On Thursday evening, the media was given a sneak preview of the 50-hectare icy playground that will accommodate 10,000 guests and includes 37 slides. Experiencing what the public will soon be able to do themselves, journalists stepped into the park's entrance - a chilly blue cavern carved into the man-made mountain that guards its entrance - and immediately felt a world away from the desert outside as the thermostat plummeted.
After buying tickets at the cavern, visitors enter a world of icy igloos and snow glazed mountains. In the days before opening, staff have tested the rides before the crowds arrive. They swish down slides from Swiss-inspired chalets. Each mound of mountain has a name designed to chill. "Mount Cyclone" is already a lifeguard favourite, as is the 100m slide descending down "Mount Attack". After three years of construction, workers have just a few days left to put the finishing touches on the igloo-inspired huts and lay the prickly blue astroturf carpeting that covers the park.
Three-hundred and eighty thousand litres of water have already begun to splash down the 37-metre tall and 165-metre wide Penguin Falls, but boxes of plastic coral in primary colours are yet to be unpacked and placed in the Coral Isle pool where guests will snorkel with real fish. 6,000 guests can boogie down at Penguin Bay in the 2,800-square-metre rain dance pool, an outdoor disco showers guests with water.
Russian and Indian staff faced off against each other in a friendly game of football to test the squishy plastic aqua field. Executives are optimistic that Ice Land, one hour from Dubai and just 30 minutes from Umm al Qaiwain's Dreamland Aqua Park, will attract tourists in the thousands from around the world. "There are a lot of water parks in the world but theme water parks are very few," said Balwant Singh, the managing director of Polo RAK Amusements, the company managing the park.
The project is partially financed by RAK Investment Authority and RAK Properties, who own other coastal developments such as Mina al Arab. Ice Land is the first phase of the US$100 million WOW RAK theme park that will include a shopping mall with an ice rink ready in autumn 2011, and Planet Earth amusement part in 2012. "Tourists coming from different parts of the world will have accommodation, they will have nice malls, they will have a water park," said Mohammed al Qadi, the chief executive of RAK Properties. "Everything complements each other and we are very optimistic that RAK will be put on the tourist map from now onwards."
The location of a wintry water park in a hot emirate that suffers from power and water shortages may seem odd. However, the park will be supplied by its own generator and have water pumped to it from a desalination plant. Even so, the RAK public has had a mixed reaction. Residents of Jazirat al Hamra, the coastal village directly beside the development, said the loss of the public beach hurt their fishing industry.
Some people mourned the loss of a popular location once populated by ghost crabs and the occasional stray camel. Others were optimistic. "It will be very good for RAK," said Aaesha Khamis, the head of promotion for RAK Tourism and a resident of the area. "Emiratis will be there," said Santokh Chawla, a managing director of Polo RAK Amusements. "Without them we are not complete." The park has 600 employees and is expected to create hundreds more jobs.
No reason was given for the delayed opening. "We are businessmen but we have a passion for this industry and we're always on the site and we try to do it better," said Mr Chalwa. "We say if we lose a little money we are happy but we want to give the best thing to the public." azacharias@thenational.ae
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 380hp at 5,800rpm
Torque: 530Nm at 1,300-4,500rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Price: From Dh299,000 ($81,415)
On sale: Now
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
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.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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%3Cp%3EBattery%3A%2060kW%20lithium-ion%20phosphate%3Cbr%3EPower%3A%20Up%20to%20201bhp%3Cbr%3E0%20to%20100kph%3A%207.3%20seconds%3Cbr%3ERange%3A%20418km%3Cbr%3EPrice%3A%20From%20Dh149%2C900%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo
Power: 374hp at 5,500-6,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm from 1,900-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.5L/100km
Price: from Dh285,000
On sale: from January 2022
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
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The biog
Birthday: February 22, 1956
Born: Madahha near Chittagong, Bangladesh
Arrived in UAE: 1978
Exercise: At least one hour a day on the Corniche, from 5.30-6am and 7pm to 8pm.
Favourite place in Abu Dhabi? “Everywhere. Wherever you go, you can relax.”
The biog
Mission to Seafarers is one of the largest port-based welfare operators in the world.
It provided services to around 200 ports across 50 countries.
They also provide port chaplains to help them deliver professional welfare services.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
F1 2020 calendar
March 15 - Australia, Melbourne; March 22 - Bahrain, Sakhir; April 5 - Vietnam, Hanoi; April 19 - China, Shanghai; May 3 - Netherlands, Zandvoort; May 20 - Spain, Barcelona; May 24 - Monaco, Monaco; June 7 - Azerbaijan, Baku; June 14 - Canada, Montreal; June 28 - France, Le Castellet; July 5 - Austria, Spielberg; July 19 - Great Britain, Silverstone; August 2 - Hungary, Budapest; August 30 - Belgium, Spa; September 6 - Italy, Monza; September 20 - Singapore, Singapore; September 27 - Russia, Sochi; October 11 - Japan, Suzuka; October 25 - United States, Austin; November 1 - Mexico City, Mexico City; November 15 - Brazil, Sao Paulo; November 29 - Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi.