Dubai builds world’s largest indoor theme park
Advertisement – Advertise here from OMR 100 / $275 USD
Al-Sahawat Times | Ethical Global News from Oman and UAE | Donate HERE
Advertisement – Advertise here from OMR 100 / $275 USD
UAE | Dubai has spent over $1 bn USD building the largest indoor theme park on Earth.
Dubai is already home to the world’s tallest building, luxury artificial islands, underwater hotels, the world’s highest outdoor tennis court and the world’s first hotel with a rainforest.
And now it’s also home to the largest indoor theme park on Earth.
Measuring 1.5 million square feet, IMG Worlds of Adventure – which opened on August 31, 2016 – is a nod to characters from Cartoon Network and Disney’s Marvel universe.
The $1 billion theme park was opened by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Makhtoum in August 2016.
The theme park occupies 1.5million square foot of indoor space. That’s approximately the same size as 28 American football fields.
IMG Worlds of Adventure cost more than $1 bn USD to build and is one of the most recent additions to the city’s bid to become the world’s entertainment capital, as high-end hotels and luxury shopping malls increasingly dominate the skyline.
The huge space can host 30’000 visitors a day and even includes a 12-screen cinema complex with an IMAX screen.
With theme park revenues in the United Arab Emirates expected to increase by 78% to $837 million USD in 2019, the park has a head start in positioning itself as one of the GCC’s leading entertainment centres.
The park is divided into four zones: MARVEL, Cartoon Network, Lost Valley – Dinosaur Adventure, and IMG Boulevard.
There are 22 rides and attractions in IMG Worlds of Adventure, including the velociraptor rollercoaster which takes riders around the indoor park before speeding through the surrounding desert. The ride is in The Lost Valley zone.
It propels riders to speeds of up to 100 km in 2.5 seconds, launching them from the deep dark prehistoric jungles of the Lost Valley out into the Dubai desert and back.
The Haunted Hotel is also a particularly popular attraction. The immersive experience is filled with mazes and sits on IMG Boulevard, which covers 200’000 square feet of space.
Elsewhere in the park, Cartoon Network classics like the Powerpuff Girls sit alongside Marvel heroes including the Hulk and Spiderman.
There are also 25 shops and 28 restaurants and cafes – and their price tags are what you’d expect from Dubai. You can buy a pen for a cool 115’000 dirhams ($31’300 USD).
The idea of a temperature-controlled indoor theme park is appealing to locals in a place where summer temperatures average 41°C (106°F).
IMG Worlds of Adventure is one of several theme parks attracting tourists to the region.
Dubai hopes to attract 20 million tourists annually by 2020, when the World Expo will visit the city. In 2015, 14 million people visited the city.
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Al-Sahawat Times than ever but advertising revenues across the global media industry are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a total paywall. We want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Al-Sahawat Times’ independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe truly ethical media and an unbias perspective really matters.
“I appreciate there not being a paywall: it is more democratic for the media to be available for all and not a commodity to be purchased by a few. I’m happy to make a contribution so others with less means still have access to information.”
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, the future of ethical media and the futures of our staff and their families would be much more secure. For as little as £1, you can support Al-Sahawat Times and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
This story is available on:
APPLE NEWS | GOOGLE NEWS | AL-SAHAWAT TIMES
Talk to a journalist
Email: NewsDesk@alsahawat.com
Web: alsahawat.com
Follow Al-Sahawat Times
S.Safwana@alsahawat.com | Journalist’s Profile
Views: 0
