• Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has unveiled details of six new tourism projects in Hatta. Twitter / @HHShkMohd
    Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has unveiled details of six new tourism projects in Hatta. Twitter / @HHShkMohd
  • Designs include a 5.4-kilometre cable car system, a sustainable waterfall attraction, an international hotel and new hiking tracks up to Jabal Umm Al Nusour – Dubai's highest peak at 1,300 metres. Courtesy Twitter / @HHShkMohd
    Designs include a 5.4-kilometre cable car system, a sustainable waterfall attraction, an international hotel and new hiking tracks up to Jabal Umm Al Nusour – Dubai's highest peak at 1,300 metres. Courtesy Twitter / @HHShkMohd
  • There are also plans to build 200 holiday homes to support domestic tourism. Courtesy Twitter / @HHShkMohd
    There are also plans to build 200 holiday homes to support domestic tourism. Courtesy Twitter / @HHShkMohd
  • The aim is to turn Hatta into a major tourist destination. Courtesy Twitter / @HHShkMohd
    The aim is to turn Hatta into a major tourist destination. Courtesy Twitter / @HHShkMohd
  • Deborah Thomson, general manager of JA Hatta Fort Hotel, believes the region could become a bucket list location. Photo: JA Hatta Fort Hotel
    Deborah Thomson, general manager of JA Hatta Fort Hotel, believes the region could become a bucket list location. Photo: JA Hatta Fort Hotel

UAE

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid unveils six new tourism projects planned for Hatta

Attractions will centre around Jabal Umm Al Nusour, Dubai's highest peak

Georgia Tolley
Georgia Tolley

August 21, 2021

  • English
  • Arabic

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has unveiled more details of the emirate's plans to develop Hatta as a tourism destination.

The designs include a 5.4-kilometre cable car, a sustainable waterfall attraction, an international hotel and new hiking tracks up to Jabal Umm Al Nusour – Dubai's highest peak at 1,300 metres.

There are also plans to build 200 holiday homes to support domestic tourism.

Hatta is an exclave of Dubai located high in the Hajar mountains, on the border with Oman.

Sheikh Mohammed first announced these tourism plans for the area in 2020, when he launched the World's Coolest Winter campaign.

This initiative aimed to get more people out exploring the Emirates, at a time when international travel was difficult because of global Covid-19 restrictions.

The development programme in Hatta first started in 2016, and tourist numbers have increased from 60,000 then, to one million by 2020, Sheikh Mohammed said on Twitter.

“The new projects of the Dubai Electricity Authority (Dewa) will provide 500 jobs for the youth of Hatta, and the new holiday homes will provide an annual income of more than Dh100 million ($27.2m) for the people of the region,” said Sheikh Mohammed.

“A decent life for our citizens will remain our goal in all our projects.”

In 2019, Dewa commissioned a consortium of companies to build a Dh1.4bn hydroelectric power station in Hatta, which will use water from the dam to generate electricity.

Turbines will use power from the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to pump water from the dam to the upper reservoir.

Since 2020, tourism in the UAE has surged. The Emirates Tourism Council announced hotel occupancy rose to 62 per cent in the UAE during the first six months of 2021, up from 53.6 per cent reported during the same period in 2020.

Revenue also jumped more than 31 per cent as hotels earned Dh11.3 billion ($3.08bn) compared to Dh8.6bn recorded over the same period a year earlier.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Updated: August 22, 2021, 6:16 AM