Competition conundrum

The leisure industry revealed a united front and shared ambition at last month's Arabian Travel Market (ATM) held in Dubai.

CEOs and senior managers from leisure projects as diverse as SeaWorld Dubai, Freej Dubailand and the Ferrari park on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi shared one major focus - the need to promote their facility as part of a destination.

For some, this destination was Dubailand and for others it was Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but for most, it was the UAE as a whole.

Busch Entertainment Corporation (BEC) president and chief operating officer Jim Atchison observed: "In certain respects it's somewhat similar to the Orlando model where you have many parks, many hotels and really they just help add a draw to the destination. They bring more people to the destination, which is ultimately what Dubai is all about."

The consensus was that as many attractions as possible were needed in order to meet Dubai's target of reaching 15 million visitors by 2015.

The theory was that the more attractions there are in the area, the more visitors there will be.

Bawadi's 51 hotels in Dubailand would be a vital part of this, increasing the number of hotels in Dubai from 40,000 to 100,000, said Bawadi chief executive officer Arif Mubarak at ATM.

"We are very much aligned to the Dubai 2015 strategy plan - one of the major pillars for the tourism strategy that Dubai set - and we are very much aligned with the 15 million tourist target," said Mubarak of Bawadi.

Marketing the many attractions under development to create a world-class destination to help achieve this goal is just one challenge, however.

After all, once people are in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, they will inevitably have to select just a few attractions to visit - especially considering the average length of stay is just two-and-a-half to three days.

Even if this grows to seven days as is the target, it would still be impossible for a visitor to experience all the attractions in one trip.

This is when the competition could begin between operators - no matter how much they insist that their parks will complement, rather than compete, with each other.

While cross packaging attractions would be relevant for some - the Busch Entertainment parks on Palm Jebel Ali perhaps - this would not be universally applicable.

Instead, operators would need to differentiate their offering in order to stand out from the crowd.

To be top of each visitor's wish list, it's incumbent upon theme park operators to make sure that their parks are unique and compelling.

While each attraction already has a unique focus - Freej Dubailand's is Arabian culture, myths and legends, while Legoland Dubailand's is interactive family rides, for example - it will be interesting to see how these are developed and maximised in the forthcoming detailed masterplans and marketing strategies.

This competition conundrum can be equally applied to other sectors within the leisure industry.

For example, fitness professionals need to work together to improve the image of exercise and remove the idea of it being painful.

However, each health club operator needs also to define their particular club's proposition. Is it a budget club or a premier facility? Is it focused on those aiming to achieve weight loss , body builders or people interested in working out with friends?

The same is true of a sports club. Those in the sports industry need to promote sport as a way of keeping active, while individually defining whether their sports venue is focused on amateur or elite athletes; friendly kickabouts or serious competitions?

Equally, while the spa industry is increasing in popularity, and working hard to educate people as to the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, individual spa managers must work out whether they are going to go down the pampering, holistic or medical route.

After all, one of the reasons people go to leisure facilities is to find like-minded people. Defining a model that will attract certain customer groups is therefore important for increasing their experience, driving member retention and the bottom line.

What are your views on the competition conundrum? Please get in touch by emailing me at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

Louise Oakley is the editor of Leisure Manager.

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

USER COMMENTS (0 COMMENTS)

POST A COMMENT

CLICK HERE TO POST A COMMENT

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.