Dubai: Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Leisure and Entertainment is on an expansion binge and is looking to introduce a new brand this year in Dubai, Gulf News has learnt.
Omar Al Banna, the company’s marketing and sales director, said: "One centre will be at Mirdif City Centre [at the end of the year], and it might be in two to three different locations [at the beginning of next year].”
Al Banna was speaking on the sidelines of a press conference at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai on Wednesday. He declined to provide additional information on the brand.
MAF Leisure and Entertainment is a unit of MAF Ventures, part of Dubai-based conglomerate MAF Holding.
Some of its brands include Magic Planet, a family entertainment centre, and Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort located at Mall of the Emirates, which attracted over one million visitors last year, and iFly, an in-door skydiving tunnel.
It is introducing Ski Egypt, which is expected to open in early 2016.
It will be at MAF’s Mall of Egypt near Cairo, which is expected to open during the same year. Al Banna declined to comment when asked about the size of investment for the new ski resort.
According to him, MAF Leisure and Entertainment is in talks to open centres around Dubai World Central (DWC).
DWC will be the location of the World Expo 2020, which Dubai won the bid to host in November last year. The six-month expo is likely to attract 25 million visitors.
Meanwhile, Magic Planet, which is currently in 17 locations in the region, is expected to be present in Abu Dhabi and Qatar, and possibly Saudi Arabia, and in more locations in Dubai, according to Al Banna.
It saw a revenue growth of 19 per cent in the UAE in 2013 over the previous year and 23 per cent in Egypt during the same period.
