The burgeoning market for theme park hotels in the UAE could lead to higher occupancies and room rates as people stay longer and spend more, according to the consultancy Colliers.
If the under-construction, large-scale attractions in Dubai are delivered ahead of 2020 as scheduled, these could also help the emirate reach its target of 20 million tourists a year before then, according to Filippo Sona, the head of hotels at Colliers International for the Middle East and North Africa.
“In six to seven hours’ flight from Dubai, you can reach 2 billion people, greater than, say, in Florida,” he said.
Florida is home to some of the world’s largest theme parks, such as Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld Orlando.
Orlando has 140 hotels within four kilometres of the attractions, including 25 hotels within the theme parks. Singapore’s resort island Sentosa has 13 hotels around the island, with four inside Universal Studios Singapore.
Hotels located on the premises of theme parks trade at an average occupancy level of 2 to 10 percentage points higher than city hotels, Colliers said.
There are 44 attractions and water parks in the Arabian Gulf, but none are of the size of Disneyland’s resorts in California and Hong Kong, for example.
Only a few have dedicated hotel accommodation, such as the seven hotels on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island close to Ferrari World and Yas Waterworld or those linked to hotels as supporting attractions such as Aquaventure waterpark at Atlantis The Palm in Dubai.
There will be the opportunity to have themed family hotels in and near upcoming attractions in Dubai including at the US$1 billion, 1.5 million square feet IMG World of Adventure and Meraas Holding’s Dubai Parks and Resorts project in Jebel Ali, which will include Motiongate Dubai, Bollywood Parks Dubai and Legoland Dubai.
Last month, Meraas announced the family-themed hotel Lapita for the first phase of the project. The hotel is scheduled to be ready in 2016 along with the three theme parks.
According to Colliers’ research, a large theme park can sustain 10 to 15 hotels with a total of 8,000 rooms, Mr Sona said.
Such hotels also extend the stay of guests and could increase demand from the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (Mice) segment.
“We can see the Mice segment business going up to 15 to 20 per cent for Dubai,” Mr Sona said. Currently, around 13 per cent of hotel guests in Dubai are attributed to the Mice segment with an average length of stay of 3.5 nights.
The length of stay for leisure tourists at beach hotels was around 4.4 nights and 3.5 for city properties.
“These can go up to five to seven nights once theme park hotels come into the picture,” he said.
At Sentosa, the average length of stay is the highest globally at five to seven nights, while it is only 1.3 days at Tokyo Disneyland.
The Yas Island hotels had an occupancy rate of about 84 per cent in the first half of this year, up from 70 per cent a year earlier.
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