At the recently concluded ATM 2013, Ilyas & Mustafa Galadari Group (IMG Group) officially unveiled ‘The IMG Worlds of Adventure (IMGWOA)’. At the unveiling, the Galadari brothers, who own the IMG Group, announced that the new 1.5 million square foot theme park will be open to public by December this year. “We are positioning the theme park as a destination in itself. IMGWOA will be in excess of 1.5 million sq. feet in the first phase and will be the largest temperature controlled indoor entertainment destination in the world including four themed zones: MARVEL, Cartoon Network, The Lost Valley and the vast IMG Entertainment Zone,” said Adam Alexander Page, Vice President- Marketing, IMG, adding that at ATM 2013 the group showcased its family entertainment centre and struck new avenues with business entities.
The park on Mohammed bin Zayed Road will be located in the City of Arabia district forming part of Dubai Properties Group’s sprawling Dubailand scheme on the edge of the city. It will include themed rides many of which will be based around the Marvel comic heroes and characters from Cartoon Network. Rides in the four-zone park will include an electromagnetic super fast roller-coaster which travels outside the building and includes more twists and turns than the one in Abu Dhabi’s Ferrari World. “The park will have a capacity to accommodate 20,000 people and is hoping to attract more than 10,000 visitors per day,” stated Page. IMG also intends to include conference facilities to attract corporate events to the park.
Page informed that the visitors from the Middle East, Europe and Asia Pacific are their key source markets, “We will be concentrating on source markets that bring in a lot of groups and families into Dubai, as our product targets mainly families and youth. Moreover, a recent report puts UAE tourism sector growth at 6.5 per cent per annum between 2011-2021, with visitors from the Middle East, Europe and Asia Pacific the key source markets.” He further added that entertainment destinations such as IMG Worlds of Adventure will add to the attractions in UAE hence making it potentially the most sought after global central entertainment hub in the future.
