Wynn Al Marjan Island, the UAE’s first gaming resort, is on track to open next year.
The date of the hotel's grand opening has, however, been pushed back to September 2027. The US hotel company, famed for its casinos and gaming, had initially been slated to open in Ras Al Khaimah in spring next year; the delay has been linked, in part, to the Iran war.
Having secured the country’s first gaming licence in 2024, the property is expected to significantly boost tourism in Ras Al Khaimah.
The resort will ascend 305 meters above sea level, across 70 storeys. As well as a spa, salon, 22 restaurants, shopping and a theatre, it will have 360-degree water views, a marina and 420 metres of private beach.
Gaming and gambling
Wynn Al Marjan Island was announced in January 2022, with news that it would include a “gaming area” on a designated floor. Internationally, Wynn is known for its casino hotel resorts in Las Vegas, Boston and Macau.
“Wynn Al Marjan Island will have an exclusive, 15-year gaming licence for Ras Al Khaimah, which is renewable, but not for the entire UAE,” a representative for the hotel tells The National. The representative adds that the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) will determine who is permitted into the gaming area.
“Gaming” is a term widely used for gambling in the US; as it stands, gambling is not currently permitted in the UAE. Previously, the gaming element of the hotel has been described by a representative as “only one of the many elements of the resort”.
Entertainment and shopping
Wynn Las Vegas is known for its on-stage entertainment – with the Lake of Dreams and Awakening among its long-term productions, along with frequent guest shows.
At Wynn Al Marjan Island, productions will also be an entertainment forethought.
In June, the property announced its partnership with the immersive theatre company behind the global hit Sleep No More.
The Ras Al Khaimah resort will host theatre company Punchdrunk's first production in the Middle East and North Africa, with the original show created exclusively for Wynn by the British company's founder and artistic director Felix Barrett.
Inspired by classic Las Vegas revue-style productions, the show will combine live music, dance and immersive theatre, allowing audiences to choose between a traditional seated performance and a free-roaming backstage experience that reveals a parallel version of the story.
Last year, Todd-Avery Lenahan, president and chief creative officer at Wynn Design and Development, told The National there will be an “intimately sized” theatre at the resort, which will open with a show that is “quite unlike anything we have done before”.
Like its sister resort, there will be a Sea of Dreams show. The water, animation and light performance will be visible from the majority of the 22 restaurants and lounges at the resort, according to Lenahan.
Supper club Delilah will stage “nightly live music and exclusive performances”, and visitors can expect guest DJs appearances at the various clubs and lounges at the resort.
There will also be a shopping promenade, architecturally inspired by European Palladian architecture.
Bars and restaurants
The first restaurants and lounges at the resort have been announced.
The property will be home to a steakhouse by celebrated French chef Alain Ducasse and the first international outpost of Delilah, the popular supper club at Wynn Las Vegas.
There will also be an Aft Cocktail Deck at the resort. In total, there will be 22 restaurants and lounges.
Lenahan has said there will also be Indo-Persian, Italian, Lebanese, Indian, Greek and Japanese restaurants, as well as a food hall, pool bars and a lobby bar.
“It's quite an incredible collection of restaurants,” Lenahan said during the property tour, “all of which will be taking advantage of beautiful views out to the ocean”.
In Las Vegas, the eponymous Delilah is a fictional 1950s showgirl inspired by the likes of Rita Hayworth and Lucille Ball. During a visit to the Las Vegas venue, Lenahan said that the UAE's patron will be “inspired by an entertainment industry icon from Beirut”.
Ten categories of rooms and suites
The resort will have 1,530 rooms and suites, split over 10 different room categories. This includes Enclave, described by the Wynn team as a “hotel within a hotel”, which is located in the top floors of the property’s central tower, and townhouse accommodation. Upon opening, it will be one of the largest hotels in the UAE, in terms of room number. JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai stands as the biggest, with 1,608 rooms.
There will be separate entrances for the main property, Enclave rooms and townhouses, as well as designated public entrances for the theatre, restaurants and shopping.
The rooms have a warm aesthetic, with a neutral pink and off-white colour scheme, broken up with splashes of cool green.
Bathrooms within the Enclave part of the property are spacious, and include a wet room with a shower and large bath inside.
Beach and wellness facilities
Set on its own island, the property will boast 420 metres of private beach. Among the swimming pools, there will be adults-only and family-friendly areas, as well as a cabanas and bungalows spread across the beachfront. There will also be a day club, or beach club, a described by Lenahan as “its own little fantasy land”.
As part of the Enclave resort, there will also be dedicated pools, cabanas and lawns.
The spa will be “its own destination” within the property, according to Lenahan, with a dedicated spa and wellness floor. There will be men’s and women’s salons, fitness and wellness areas and treatment suites, as well as retail and dining offerings on the floor. The spa will also offer thermal experiences, including hammams, steam rooms and dry saunas, with colour therapy and chromotherapy.
An extensive art collection
The hotel will boast a sizeable collection of art, antiquities and artefacts, which will be on show throughout the Ras Al Khaimah resort’s public spaces, guest areas and rooms.
Highlights include a 66-million-year-old Triceratops skull and a specially commissioned Light Into Life sculpture by British artist Marc Quinn. The collection also features a 17th-century, 10-meter wool-and-silk tapestry, with counterparts held at the Louvre Museum, Paris and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
There will also be pieces brought in from Wynn hotels internationally, including Jeff Koons’s large-scale Tulips, which was previously displayed at Wynn Las Vegas, and a Jaume Plensa sculpture from his Secret Garden series, which was most recently exhibited at Encore Boston Harbor. Demonstrating the breadth of the eclectic collection, quartet of 18th-century Buccleuch vases, originally showcased at Wynn Palace in Macau and a Victorian cut-glass console and mirror from Wynn Las Vegas, will also be on show.
According to a statement from the hotel, part of the curation hopes to “reverse a journey of 19th-century Orientalism” through its acquisitions by returning historically significant works by western artists to the region that inspired them.
These works include works by 19th-century French artists Gustave Guillaumet and Rudolf Ernst. Guillaumet's Caravan in the Desert depicts a caravan of camels in the Sahara, while Ernst’s Entering the Temple is part of a series of works depicting Islamic culture across North Africa, Turkey and Egypt.
The collection will also include works by contemporary artists from the region, including Algerian artist Faiza Maghni. Her works will be shown primarily in-room and suite.
