Nick Varney, the chief executive of Merlin Entertainments, is clear that he wants an internationally balanced portfolio of entertainment attractions and parks.
The aim is for the company to have about a third of its business in Europe, Asia and the United States.
For Merlin, Legoland Dubai is one of four parks around the world that the company has identified as strategic mile stones to be completed by 2020.
The other sites are Nagoya in Japan, which opens in April next year, Chuncheon in South Korea, which opens in 2018 and a fourth Legoland in the US, or a China site – whichever comes first. China is a very important market in future, with the company scoping sites for several new Legoland parks there.
Meanwhile, in the UAE, the company’s collaboration extends beyond Legoland. Meraas, the holding company for Legoland Dubai’s owner DXB Entertainments, invited Merlin to operate some of its other concepts and these are all coming to fruition.
First announced in 2008, Merlin Entertainments has confirmed that the long-delayed Madame Tussauds Dubai will open in autumn 2017.
The wax model museum in Dubai is based on the original London concept, which still has daily snaking queues down the capital’s Marylebone Road.
Next door to Dubai’s Madame Tussauds, the Merlin-operated Dubai Eye, the world’s tallest observation wheel at 210 metres high, is under construction. This will also open next year and is designed to carry three million visitors a year. Merlin’s experience of operating high-tech Ferris wheels – if they can be called this – now extends beyond London to Blackpool, Sydney and Orlando.
“We are here [in Dubai] because we have been invited by a strong partner [Meraas]. We think there is scope for one more investment in Dubai over the next 12 months, and an announcement is likely in the next six months,” says Mr Thompson.
Back at home, the past two years have been rocky for Merlin Entertainments. In 2015 one of the roller coasters at Alton Towers, its best-known British theme park, crashed causing horrific injuries to 16 people, including two young women who each lost a leg. Last month the company was fined £5 million (Dh 23.2m) over the “catastrophic” safety failures that caused the crash.
The park’s visitor numbers dropped dramatically and have yet to recover to 2014 levels.
Elsewhere in the group, the company’s attractions in city centres have also seen visitor numbers falling, which it attributes to “wider security concerns” of domestic and international travellers – in other words the spate of terrorist attacks in key cities including Paris, Brussels, Nice and Munich. Merlin also plans to open six Shrek-themed attractions around the world, in an agreement with DreamWorks, which are now under review.
The company’s share price has seen some benefit from the post-Brexit surge in UK stock markets. Analysts at Barclays have also said that Merlin could emerge a winner from the maelstrom caused by the UK’s decision to leave the EU. As the pound fell to a 31-year low in the wake of the referendum result, analysts have suggested that the weak currency should be positive for Merlin, particularly if that leads Brits to stay home for “staycations”. The bank also pointed to what happened in 2009 when consumer confidence plunged as the global financial crisis took hold. Visits to theme parks actually rose by 5 per cent, said Vicki Stern, an analyst at Barclays.
While Merlin is actively expanding overseas, including in Dubai, London remains a significant part of its earnings stream.
Analysts at HSBC also like Merlin because of its global diversification and because its parks and attractions are “scalable”, in other words repeatable. They also expect the theme park operator to benefit from a recovery in tourism in London in 2017, partly because of the post-Brexit weaker pound.
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Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history
Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)
Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.
Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)
A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.
Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)
Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.
Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)
Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.
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FINAL SCORES
Fujairah 130 for 8 in 20 overs
(Sandy Sandeep 29, Hamdan Tahir 26 no, Umair Ali 2-15)
Sharjah 131 for 8 in 19.3 overs
(Kashif Daud 51, Umair Ali 20, Rohan Mustafa 2-17, Sabir Rao 2-26)
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
