DUBAI: The world's largest indoor theme park is set to open in Dubai this month to lure back some of the tourists and residents who often flee abroad during the scorching desert summer.
In a sandy suburb beyond Dubai's concrete jungle and pockets of artificially green spaces, IMG Worlds of Adventure's boxy exterior belies a 140,000-square metre (1.5 million-square foot) air-conditioned cathedral of entertainment teeming with animatronic di**saurs, roller coasters, Marvel superheroes and Cartoon Network characters.
Zombies pop out from dark corners of a haunted house and the Velociraptor coaster throttles passengers within a misty simulated rain forest dubbed the Lost Valley.
As it stands **w, stir-crazy families in
Dubai - a tourism and financial hub which already boasts the world's tallest building - have few places to stretch their legs beyond expensive malls while temperatures outside can approach 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).
Even an
indoor ski slope, complete with real-life penguins, has **t been e**ugh to stanch the exodus that leaves roads and public spaces eerily quiet through the hot months.
"Dubai still suffers from a certain amount of seasonality during the June, July, August period," Lennard Otto, CEO of the new $1 billion attraction, told Reuters.
"We will hopefully drive tourism in those periods to make
Dubai an all-year-round destination," he said, ahead of the
theme park's Aug. 31 opening.
"Today there's a gap in this market and in the region. People are actually travelling to the far east and the far west to experience
theme parks," Otto said.
Both the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, and Saudi Arabia have launched initiatives this year to create more fun for their car and smartphone-obsessed people.
As part of a plan to diversify its eco**my away from oil, Saudi Arabia an**unced in June that it was in talks with Six Flags Entertainment Corp to build
theme parks, and the UAE created a "Happiness Ministry" in February to look at ways of measuring and improving quality of life.
Happiness in
Dubai may soon be in ** short supply, as a government-backed rival by
Dubai Parks and Resorts will
open by year's end, while a Fox-branded
theme park, with attractions based on TV and film titles such as "Ice Age" and "The Simpsons", is set to
open in 2020.
أكثر...