Dubai: Dubai Parks & Resorts started selling its series of annual passes on the first day of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM). The complex is due to open in October.
CEO Raed Al Nuaimi, in an interview at ATM, said the Dh10.5 billion Dubai Parks project, which comprises three theme parks, a water park, hotel and a central restaurant and retail shopping area, is expected to generate revenue of Dh2.4 billion in its first year of operation and to break even in seven to eight years.
“I can’t wait for the opening,” Al Nuaimi said. “We have almost 14,000 workers inside, working hard to achieve this.”
When it opens the park complex will have 10,000 car parking spaces, with additional areas for buses. The complex will have its own tram system to ferry passengers from one zone to another.
Al Nuaimi said, “We have created this internally ... to pick up guests from the parking lots on the way to three different stop stations, two to parks — Legoland and Motiongate — and one in the middle. This will be operational from Day One.”
There are already plans to extend the Dubai Metro to service the park under the Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) plans for Expo 2020. “We are working very closely with them to perfect that plan,” Al Nuaimi said.
Dubai Parks expects 6.7 million visitors in its first year of operation, and predicts a growth in visitor numbers of around 3 per cent a year, and 6 to 9 per cent in peak seasons.
“We have an annual capacity of 20 million visitors. We can take up to 55,000 people a day. I think 2020 will help us increase that number significantly.”
While operations at the moment are focused on getting the project ready for its October opening, there are already expansion plans.
“We have the luxury of bigger land for the design base,” Al Nuaimi said. “We designed from scratch and we didn’t have any geographical constraints. For example, Motiongate is a four million square-foot plot, and we have used two million square feet, half, which allows expansion into [the other] 50 per cent.
“Ideally. what happens is that your attendance forces you to expand so that you have more capacity, and ideally it’s from three to five years in order for you to add a new ride.
“All of the parks of course have plans, and we have a good library to pick up from intellectual properties, to be able to design the right approach.”
