AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST
AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST NEWS BRIEFS ABU DHABI TOURISM HOTTING UP WITH SEVERAL MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS The eagerly anticipated Louvre Abu Dhabi opened to visitors in 2017, the first branch of the Louvre to open outside France. Its permanent collection comprises more than 600 pieces of art, displayed across 23 state-of-the-art galleries. Meanwhile, Miral – the developer behind Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi, which opens on Yas Island in 2018 – has revealed that the USbn dollar theme park will be made up of six immersive worlds. The DC Comics universe will comprise two of the six worlds, with Metropolis Gotham City, Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi and Gotham City, the homes of Superman and Batman respectively, designed to draw fans of the super hero franchises. The next worlds, Cartoon Junction and Dynamite Gulch, will bring together Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo and other famous characters from Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera, while fans of the Flintstones can have a “yabba dabba doo” time in the prehistoric world of Bedrock. The final world will be Warner Bros Plaza, a recreation of Hollywood in its Golden Age, when many of these seminal characters were first brought to life Lobby, Kempinski Hotel Muscat TOURISM KEY FACTOR TO GROWTH IN OMAN By 2040, Oman aims to attract more than 11.7 million visitors, making tourism one of the most significant income generators in the Sultanate, at between six and 10% of annual GDP. To cater for a planned increase in visitors, Muscat International Airport’s new terminal was opened recently, with the ability to handle 12 million passengers per year. A number of new hotels have opened or are scheduled to open soon, including the luxury Kempinski Hotel in Al Mouj, Muscat; the dusitD2 Palm Mall Muscat and the luxury development of Muscat Bay. Elsewhere, the former commercial port, Port Sultan Qaboos, is under development to transform into a major tourist and business travel destination with hotels, retail and cultural areas. Oman Air, for its part, is undergoing a major expansion programme, which will see the carrier operate 70 aircraft to around 75 destinations by 2023 USBN INVESTMENT IN BAHRAIN TOURISM SECTOR Bahrain will see the opening of 15 new hotels and beachfront resorts by 2020 – representing a total investment of more than USbn. New arrivals include global hotel brands such as One&Only, Wyndham, Fairmont, Vida, The Address, Ibis and Pullman. Bahrain already has more than 190 hotels and resorts, and the extra developments are expected to increase hotel capacity by about 4,000 hotel rooms by 2020. The kingdom is seeing another boost to its profile this year as its second largest island, Muhurraq, is the Islamic Cultural Capital 2018, recognising the conservation work being done on the island – most notably with the UNESCO World Heritage Pearling Trail due for completion this year Qal’At Al-Bahrain Historic Site, Bahrain
AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST NEWS BRIEFS Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #38 2018 Spring Edition 29 SAUDI HOSPITALITY SECTOR TO GROW 13.5% PER ANNUM TO 2022 Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), mother with baby, Titus Group, Rwanda © Charles Sharp © Ali Mansuri According to a new report, recent reforms in Saudi Arabia – not to mention widespread investment in the Kingdom’s burgeoning tourism industry – will drive growth in the hospitality market of 13.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), higher than the established markets of the UAE (10.1%) and Oman (11.8%). The study produced by ATM’s research partner Colliers, found that religious tourism in the kingdom is still driving demand, with 30,000 rooms opened during 2017, with a further 40,020 guestrooms in 89 projects currently under construction – compared to 35,050 rooms in the UAE. Last year, Saudi Arabia set the stage for this to expand to leisure tourism, as it pursued targets of 30 million visitors annually by 2030. As a result, 2018 is seeing the first tourism visas granted to international travellers and, for the first time, women aged 25 and older will now be able to obtain a single entry, 30-day tourist visa without a male chaperone Supplicating Pilgrim at Masjid Al Haram. Mecca, Saudi Arabia NUMBERS EXPECTED TO RISE IN UGANDA’S GORILLA CENSUS A new census of mountain gorillas is under way in the Bwindi National Park in Uganda, currently known to be home to around half the global population of the critically-endangered apes. The last count, which was carried out back in 2011, revealed there to be around 400 mountain gorillas living in the park. Now, hopes are high that the current count will show that numbers have risen steadily over the past few years. In fact, given the number of babies born to gorilla families living within the National Park boundaries, some conservationists are even hoping that the figure could hit 500. Even if the increase isn’t so dramatic, any rise will be welcomed as proof that sustainable tourism, combined with a communityfocused approach to conservation, is paying dividends CAPE TOWN DEVELOPMENT NEARS COMPLETION © Tsogo Sun South Africa’s leading entertainment, hotel and gaming company, Tsogo Sun, has revealed details of its newest property. The dual-brand 19-storey hotel development on the corner of Bree, Buitengracht and Strand streets in Cape Town was completed late 2017. The hotels will add 504 rooms to the Cape Town tourism market. The development – which consists of the SunSquare Cape Town City Bowl and the StayEasy Cape Town City Bowl – expands Tsogo Sun’s product range for both business and leisure travellers of all budgets SunSquare Cape Town City Bowl
