Dubai Parks and Resorts on track for opening in October 2016

Set to open in October 2016, Dubai Parks and Resorts, the region’s largest integrated theme park destination revealed details of its Annual Pass programme, which will be available from today. With over 100 rides and attractions spread across three world-class theme parks and one water park, they will provide visitors with unlimited access to ‘Experience Amazing’. On the opening day of ATM 2016, Aviamost team spoke to its Chief Destination Management Officer Vinit Shah to know more…

Are you on track for the opening?

Yes. The resorts will open in October 2016.

For phase 2 we are working with the 6 Flags Theme Parks, who are focused on thrill rides in USA with the biggest, the tallest, the fastest, the scariest rides, and we are working with them to bring that to Dubai in Q4 in 2019.

In the current phase we have 3 theme parks, one water park, a 504-room resort and Riverland which is our retail, dining and entertainment area. So the first theme park is Motiongate which is a tribute to Hollywood so we have the likes of Dreamworks with characters like Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Smurfs, from Sony Pictures and classics like Ghostbuster, which are rides.

And we have Bollywood Parks™ Dubai, the first theme park based on the sights and sounds of Bollywood which doesn’t exist even in India. It has a lot of shows and entertainment, so every hour there will be an impromptu performance in the park going on. So we have over 30 shows planned during the day and in the night we have a Broadway-style Bollywood performance in a specially 850-seat theatre attached and a fine-dining restaurant where you can experience Mughal-era dining.

As well as LEGOLAND® Dubai, a unique, interactive theme park for families which will bring the well-known LEGO® brick to life in a playful learning environment; and LEGOLAND® Water Park, the region’s first water park catering to families with children 2-12 designed differently where apart from splashing around they can do a number of things.

And we have 500-room hotel Lapita™ Hotel, a Polynesian-themed resort catering to families, which will be managed by the Marriott Group in its Autograph collection. And the entire destination will be connected by Riverland™ Dubai featuring over 50 retail, dining and entertainment opportunities walkway located at the heart of the destination around a 1km river with boat rides, and guests can stay at the Lapita™ Hotel, a Polynesian-themed resort catering to families, which will be managed by the Marriott Group.

So what do you do in summer?

The parks are designed to take care of the summer. For example in motiongate the entire d zone is indoors. We have designed the parks in such a way that you are never 200m away from a cooled area. And up to 30 minutes of queuing time is air conditioned. And for Legoland the entire Miniland section is completely indoors under a dome.  

How important are the Chinese and Russian markets for you?

Both the mrakets are very important. The Chinese if you see Emirates has launched flights to new routes recently. The Russian market has been down but we don’t expect it to be down.