Dh6.2 billion pumped into mega tourism attraction in Abu Dhabi's Yas Island
A mega arena, a sports and leisure attraction, hotel to open
Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi-based Miral is currently undertaking projects worth Dh6.2 billion on Yas Island to boost tourism and attract more visitors to the island, the company’s chief executive officer said on Tuesday.
“We want Yas Island to be top 10 family destination by 2022. We want to have enough attractions and facilities for families to enjoy the time on the island,” said Mohammad Al Zaabi speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi.
The privately owned company supported by Abu Dhabi government is developing a number of projects on Yas Island including Yas Bay project, which is set to be delivered in different phases.
Yas Bay Arena, an 18,000 capacity multi-purpose venue for sports, cultural and business events, will be completed in 2019, he said.
Miral will also unveil Clymb in 2019, a new sports and leisure attraction featuring the world’s widest indoor skydiving flight chamber and the highest indoor climbing wall that towers at 43 meters.
Miral will always focus on entertainment, hospitality and leisure. Yas Bay is a massive project we are working on. We look forward to welcome our new partners or stakeholders, twofour54. They are moving to Yas South as well, adjacent to Yas Bay.
A new Hilton hotel with 550 keys will also come up on Yas Bay by 2020, he added. Another project, SeaWorld, will be ready by 2022.
“Miral will always focus on entertainment, hospitality and leisure. Yas Bay is a massive project we are working on. We look forward to welcome our new partners or stakeholders, twofour54. They are moving to Yas South as well, adjacent to Yas Bay,” he said.
Abu Dhabi’s media cluster operator, twofour54, has brought in Aldar Properties to build a new permanent base for itself on Yas Island. Covering an initial gross floor area (GFA) of 95,000 square metres, the facility will feature Grade A offices, TV studios and retail spaces.
The first phase of the free zone is valued at approximately Dh1 billion and has set a target of 10,000 professionals from the media sector coming to Yas Island.
When asked whether their assets, which include Ferrari World, Warner Bros and Yas Waterworld, are profitable, he said they are meeting their budget and happy with the numbers.
“Our assets are profitable. We use that money to expand and explore more options and build more assets,” he said, adding that all their projects are self-financed.
Speaking about the $1 billion (Dh3.7 billion) Warner Bros project that was opened to the public in July this year, he said it is continuing to attract more tourists including from India, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Germany.
“Currently, we have 70 per cent residents and 30 per cent tourists visiting Warner Bros. We expect this to change over a period of time,” he said.
Abu Dhabi is targeting 5.5 million hotel guests by the end of 2018 as it plans to attract leisure tourists and position the capital as a competitive market, a top official of Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi said in March this year.
In 2017, Abu Dhabi attracted 4.8 million tourists resulting in nearly Dh5 billion in revenue including that from hotel and food and beverages.