The park's management has ambitious goals for the development. "We are excited to have launched the world’s largest indoor theme park today, which will be a major tourism attraction for Dubai, the surrounding regions and the rest of the world," Lennard Otto, Chief Executive Officer of IMG Worlds of Adventure, said in an opening statement. "As the first international theme park to open in Dubai, we expect to host over 4.5 million people in our first year of operation, transforming the entertainment and leisure industry forever."
An annual attendance of 4.5 million would put the park right on the edge of the world's Top 25 most attended theme parks last year, as reported by the annual TEA/AECOM analysis. That also would have put IMG Worlds of Adventure in the top five most-visited parks in the Europe and Middle East reporting region, edging Walt Disney Studios in Paris and coming in behind Disneyland Paris, Europa Park, Tivoli Gardens, and Efteling.
Here's a promo video from the park, of today's opening:
And here is the park's line-up of attractions:
Marvel
Cartoon Network
Lost Valley
IMG Boulevard
The park is open 365 days a year, with initial operating hours posted as noon-10pm daily. Adult tickets are US$82.69, at today's exchange rate and can be bought on the park's website. "Ultimate Fast Track" passes are an additional $53. Annual passes are $679.36. Parking is free.
With Ferrari World in neighboring Abu Dhabi and Motiongate, Bollywood Park, and Legoland Dubai opening in the Dubai Parks and Resorts complex next month, the United Arab Emirates soon will have five world-class theme parks, including IMG Worlds of Adventure.
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The UAE has quite a way to go to compete with Orlando for theme park fans, but in a few years it might get there. The big test will be the three parks opening in October by Dubai Parks and Resorts. If they are as good as they appear they will be, then the UAE starts getting more attractive to European theme park fans (especially if the US border patrol increasingly becomes Fortress America and there are more mass shootings). And then Warner Bros. and Six Flags in a few years could be the tipping point. There may even be a Sea World park. The water parks in the UAE are already some of the best in the world. Still, the two biggest players are missing from the UAE so far: Disney and Universal.
I am curious to see what happens with all this theme park development in the UAE. In five years, it will probably be either a must visit destination for theme park enthusiasts (aka the Orlando of Eurasia) or it will be a ghost town since the tourism never materialized. I'm hoping for the former, but I would not be surprised by the latter.
I agree that Ferrari World has improved in the last year, but still has quite a way to go to become a must-see destination even when in the UAE (especially with all the cool stuff opening in the next few years from new theme parks to world-class museums Louvre and Guggenheim).
It's too bad there are so many small parks in this area rather than one or two Disneyland-sized parks. Or Universal-sized parks. Going small just seems half-hearted and disappointing to me.
Dubai is known for being Western-Friendly. Westerners are permitted to drink there (its actually become a bit of a party town...)
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I'm especially interested in the "Avengers Battle of Ultron" 3D dark ride. Is it a Spiderman/Transformers style dark ride?