Merlin Group Unveils Concrete Plans for Legoland Dubai Theme Park

The British visitor attraction operator group Merlin Entertainments (Merlin) announced exciting plans for its new Legoland Dubai theme park scheduled to open in 2016 on Wednesday. The first Legoland theme park in the Middle East and the seventh worldwide will be built on a 28 hectare large area and be located in Dubai’s port town of Jebel Ali near the Palm Islands. The park is being developed by Merlin in conjunction with Dubai Parks & Resorts Limited, a Meraas holding company (cp. EAP news from 14 April 2014). The park will feature over 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions, some of which are already known from the other Legoland parks. The first phase of the Dubai Parks & Resorts project will also include the construction of two further parks: Motiongate™ Dubai and Bollywood Parks™ Dubai. “Riverpark”, a grand entrance plaza and “Lapita”, a family themed hotel, will also belong to the first phase of the project, too, and open in 2016 as well. The Dubai Parks & Resorts project has been launched as part of Dubai’s Tourism Vision 2020 which, under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, aims to double Dubai’s annual visitor numbers from ten million in 2012 to 20 million in 2020. (eap)