The burgeoning market for theme park hotels in the UAE could lead to higher occupancies and room rates as people stay longer and spend more, according to the consultancy Colliers.
If the under-construction, large-scale attractions in Dubai are delivered ahead of 2020 as scheduled, these could also help the emirate reach its target of 20 million tourists a year before then, according to Filippo Sona, the head of hotels at Colliers International for the Middle East and North Africa.
“In six to seven hours’ flight from Dubai, you can reach 2 billion people, greater than, say, in Florida,” he said.
Florida is home to some of the world’s largest theme parks, such as Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld Orlando.
Orlando has 140 hotels within four kilometres of the attractions, including 25 hotels within the theme parks. Singapore’s resort island Sentosa has 13 hotels around the island, with four inside Universal Studios Singapore.
Hotels located on the premises of theme parks trade at an average occupancy level of 2 to 10 percentage points higher than city hotels, Colliers said.
There are 44 attractions and water parks in the Arabian Gulf, but none are of the size of Disneyland’s resorts in California and Hong Kong, for example.
Only a few have dedicated hotel accommodation, such as the seven hotels on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island close to Ferrari World and Yas Waterworld or those linked to hotels as supporting attractions such as Aquaventure waterpark at Atlantis The Palm in Dubai.
There will be the opportunity to have themed family hotels in and near upcoming attractions in Dubai including at the US$1 billion, 1.5 million square feet IMG World of Adventure and Meraas Holding’s Dubai Parks and Resorts project in Jebel Ali, which will include Motiongate Dubai, Bollywood Parks Dubai and Legoland Dubai.
Last month, Meraas announced the family-themed hotel Lapita for the first phase of the project. The hotel is scheduled to be ready in 2016 along with the three theme parks.
According to Colliers’ research, a large theme park can sustain 10 to 15 hotels with a total of 8,000 rooms, Mr Sona said.
Such hotels also extend the stay of guests and could increase demand from the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (Mice) segment.
“We can see the Mice segment business going up to 15 to 20 per cent for Dubai,” Mr Sona said. Currently, around 13 per cent of hotel guests in Dubai are attributed to the Mice segment with an average length of stay of 3.5 nights.
The length of stay for leisure tourists at beach hotels was around 4.4 nights and 3.5 for city properties.
“These can go up to five to seven nights once theme park hotels come into the picture,” he said.
At Sentosa, the average length of stay is the highest globally at five to seven nights, while it is only 1.3 days at Tokyo Disneyland.
The Yas Island hotels had an occupancy rate of about 84 per cent in the first half of this year, up from 70 per cent a year earlier.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Results
Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent
Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent
Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
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
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
