24 SPECIAL FEATURE
24 SPECIAL FEATURE AMUSEMENT PARKS BITE THE BULLET AND TAKE A RIDE The first World of The Hunger Games featuring rides and attractions from the blockbuster movie franchise was officially inaugurated on October 20, 2017 at Dubai Parks and Resorts, the region’s largest integrated theme park destination. Europa-Park: More Interactive Than Ever New VR animation featuring Paddington coming to Germany’s biggest theme park Visitors to Germany’s largest theme park now have the unique opportunity to experience a brand new interactive animation. Paddington will be onhand to greet guests on the Alpenexpress Coastiality ride. Paddington, first made famous in the well-known children’s book, can also be found opposite the Globe Theatre in the English themed area from the beginning of the winter season. From the 2018 summer season, Europa-Park will also present a brand-new ice show with Paddington once again taking centre stage to entertain the whole family. After the successful release of Paddington 2, a brand new interactive Paddington ride is brought to visitors from December 2. Launching for the 2017 winter season, visitors to Germany’s largest theme park will get the unique opportunity to experience a new interactive adventure on the Alpenexpress Coastiality ride. This new ride will allow the visitors to enjoy more adventures with Paddington and extend the experience of Gameloft’s game: Paddington Run, which plunges the gamers into a frantic race through the streets of London on smartphones and tablets. MackMedia worked closely to develop the ride with Gameloft’s development studios and the Copyrights group who manages all of the licensing activities of the Paddington brand. Visitors can immerse themselves fully in this exciting new ride, which has interactive elements with visitors being able to direct Paddington on his journey with movements of their head. With this addition, Europa- Park expands its Coastiality offering on the popular ride to four experiences, all produced by MackMedia. With the help of Samsung Gear VR glasses, visitors will find themselves on the red double decker bus as Paddington chases to catch up with it. For the first time, guests can interactively engage in the action of a MackMedia VR animation - will Paddington catch the bus? PADDINGTON CAN BE FOUND ALL THROUGHOUT EUROPA-PARK Since the beginning of the 2017 Winter season, visitors can visit the lovable bear in an additional home in front of the venerable Globe Theatre in the English themed area where they can enjoy a lot of lovely Paddington articles. Additionally, from the beginning of the 2018 summer season on 24th March 2018, Paddington will also be on hand to greet guests of Europa-Park as the star of a new ice show. The 30-minute interactive show in the Greek themed area focuses on many aspects of the beloved children’s book, especially Paddington’s favourite food – marmalade sandwiches. Guaranteed fun for the whole family! Hall 6.2b / Stand 202 The launch of the World of the Hunger Games completes all the rides and attractions at the Lionsgate Zone, one of the five zones at Motiongate Dubai, and is the latest addition to the Hollywoodinspired theme park. Fans of the movies can now experience the action-packed thrill of the beloved films that reached audiences worldwide through a first-of-its kind theme park land designed by Lionsgate, the global film studio behind The Hunger Games movies. For the first time, guests can experience an immersive land which includes a replication of the movie set, and exclusive video content, featuring film favourites, Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman, broadcasted on screens across the attraction. The World of The Hunger Games is composed of two attractions, one high-energy street show, an immersive shopping outlet with exclusive branded merchandise and a street-front café taking guests on a journey into the dystopian world of Panem. Thrill-seekers can soar on the highspeed, gravity-defying Capitol Bullet Train, and an adrenaline-fuelled ride aboard a half-pipe rollercoaster Hall 2.1 / Stand 100 ITB BERLIN NEWS • Friday 9 th March 2018 www.itb-berlin-news.com
AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST REGION 25 Desert and inland sea, Qatar © Pankaj Insy Shah AFRICA & ME MAIN TRAVEL DESTINATIONS Middle East and Africa Recover Lost Ground After a period of stagnation due to instability in the region, North Africa and the Middle East tourism posted strong growth in 2017 While African tourism has recorded overall growth over the last three years, the Middle East finally was back on track with total arrivals to the region up by 5% in 2017. It’s a sign that a strong recovery is underway following three years of sharp contraction in North Africa and two years of stagnation for the Middle East. Indeed, the UNWTO’s World Tourism Barometer States that this return to growth was characterised by “extraordinary strength.” Provisioned data from the UNWTO show that international arrivals in all of Africa accelerated 7.8% in 2017 - up from from 7.6% in 2016. This amounts to roughly 62 million international arrivals. Of these, sub-saharan Africa generated the largest number of travellers at 40.7 million; while South Africa accounted for a quarter of all arrivals with 10.3 million arrivals - which was modest growth due to a decline in Chinese visitors to the country. The most reassuring trend came from North Africa. After years of decline due to the spread of terrorism and political instability, Egypt as well as Tunisia could smile again last year as tourist arrivals started to grow. Foreign arrivals to Egypt in 2017 increased by a massive 53% and amounted to 8.3 million travellers. Revenues performed even better last year, with Egypt generating .6 billion in tourism income, a jump of 125%. Meanwhile, the lifting in December of a ban on Russian airlines flying to Egypt is also certain to boost arrivals. Tunisia enjoyed similar growth, with a 23% uptick in foreign arrivals, which amounted to 6.3 million travellers. Morocco, however, remains North Africa’s tourism star, with over 11.5 million visitors - a rise of 10% from 2016. In the Middle East, most countries to grow last year. The top performer in the region is Saudi Arabia, which welcomed some 19 million of foreign travellers. However many arrivals are for the mecca pilgrimage. It’s expected that the opening of the Kingdom to leisure tourism will see growth from non-traditional markets in Europe and Asia. Dubai confirmed its status as the Middle East’s largest international tourism destination, with 15.8 million travellers to the Emirate, up 6.2%. Abu Dhabi grew by almost 9.8%, while Oman received over three million international travellers (+5%). Israel also reached a record year in 2017 with 3.86 million travellers arriving by air and land, a jump of 26% over 2016. Only Qatar saw arrivals decline last year, a 23% drop due to the blockade of the country by some neighbours. Nonetheless, European arrivals in Qatar grew by 6.3% AFRICA BOTSWANA HALL 20/131 CÔTE D’IVOIRE HALL 21.A/112 EGYPT HALL 4.2/108, 108A ERITREA HALL 21.A/110 ETHIOPIA HALL 21.A/129 GAMBIA HALL 21.A/107 GHANA HALL 21.A/108 ILE DE LA RÉUNION HALL 20/123, 130 KENYA HALL 21.A/122 LESOTHO HALL 20/106 MADAGASCAR HALL 20/103 MALAWI HALL 20/101 MALI HALL 21.A/109 MAURITIUS HALL 20/128 MAYOTTE HALL 20/105 MOROCCO HALL 21.B/213 MOZAMBIQUE HALL 20/108 NAMIBIA HALL 20/115 RWANDA HALL 21.A/120 SAINT HELENA HALL 20/121, 122 SAO TOME & PRINCIPE HALL 20/127 SEYCHELLES HALL 20/129 SOUTH AFRICA HALL 20/138 SUDAN HALL 21.B/206 SWAZILAND HALL 20/114 TANZANIA HALL 21.A/128 TOGO HALL 21.A/111 UGANDA HALL 21.A/121 ZAMBIA HALL 21.E/101 & HALL 4.1/201 ZIMBABWE HALL 20/133 MIDDLE EAST BAHRAIN HALL 4.2/204 ISRAEL HALL 4.2/205 JORDAN HALL 4.1/202 & HALL 4.2/200 LEBANON HALL 4.2/201 OMAN HALL 2.2/204 QATAR HALL 2.2/206 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ABU DHABI HALL 2.2/200 AJMAN HALL 2.2/201 DUBAI HALL 2.2/100 FUJAIRAH HALL 2.2/104 RAS AL-KHAIMAH HALL 2.2/103 SHARJAH HALL 2.2/102 ITB BERLIN NEWS • Friday 9 th March 2018
