Dubai will soon have a one-stop destination for families whose tastes run from Spider-Man to velociraptors to the Powerpuff Girls.
Local developer Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari Group said on Sunday that its new 140,000-square-metre indoor amusement park on the city's desert outskirts would open on August 15, two years behind schedule.
The $1 billion IMG Worlds of Adventure park includes one section centred on Marvel Comics and another branded by Cartoon Network. Another zone is dedicated to dinosaurs and features a roller coaster to whisk thrill-seekers outside and back into the air-conditioned complex.
"We expect to break even in year one," said Mohamed Adnaan, IMG Group chief financial officer, dismissing concerns that the city is headed for a glut of entertainment attractions. "We see a lot of efficiencies in the way we designed this park from a costing standpoint, that's the reason we think we'll make money in year one."
"The park is aiming to attract 4.5 million visitors in its first year of operation and will generate revenue of 1.5 billion dirhams ($408 million) to 1.7 billion dirhams ($463 million),'' he said. "Visitor numbers are expected to increase by 6.5% in the second year.''
Billed as the first mega-themed entertainment park in Dubai, the complex, now 96% complete, had been scheduled to open in 2014 but was delayed mostly because of stricter building regulations introduced mid-construction, Adnaan said.
It is part of the larger IMG-owned City of Arabia, a multi-billion-dollar retail, residential, commercial and entertainment complex, first announced in 2003 although construction of many of the projects has yet to start in earnest.
"Three, five, seven to 10 years you will see that coming out of the ground as well," said Adnaan.
By the end of 2016, Worlds of Adventure will be joined by rival Dubai Parks and Resorts PJSC, the 10.5-billion-dirham Dubai government-backed park, while another family group, Al Ahli Holding Group, last year said it would open a Fox-branded theme park in 2020.
IMG executives dismissed concerns of an oversupply of attractions, saying that multiple parks would help Dubai realise its ambition of becoming a family tourism destination.
"Dubai is moving into an Orlando 2.0 model where the market is untapped," said Lennard Francois Otto, chief executive of IMG Worlds of Adventures, referring to an improved and more advanced version of the original theme park concept seen in the US city which is home to more than a dozen such complexes. "Orlando has multiple parks flourishing in the same location."