SINCE its opening a year ago, the Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi has been receiving rave reviews and recognitions, and has established a strong reputation as a dynamic family-friendly entertainment hub.
Park general manager Mike Oswald says: “Even before our launch, there was wide-spread anticipation and buzz amongst travellers, and also within the travel and leisure industry. With the excitement also came big expectations, and I think now looking back on the past year, we could never imagine the overwhelmingly positive response from guests and our travel industry partners.”
Within the first year, the Park received six awards and accolades, sold more annual passes than expected and welcomed a host of famous personalities including celebrity David Hasselhoff who plays the role of a lifeguard in the well-known television series Baywatch.
The park is set across 15 hectares of land and features 43 slides and attractions. It offers a diversity of attractions for thrill-seekers from ages 10 to 70. “Our core target visitors come from UAE, while our marketing efforts are reaching out to the entire GCC and our core source markets,” adds Oswald.
Last month, the Park made waves by setting the Guinness World Record for the largest swimming lesson where 777 swimmers participated during a lesson which took place last June. The swimmers beat 32,450 competitors from 432 venues in 13 countries.
Yas Waterworld also saw start of the popular weekly Ladies Nights and become the regular home of Abu Dhabi’s first flow league, which culminated in the park hosting the annual World Flowboarding Championships with former world champ and UAE resident, Clayton Barker.
Oswald says: “Based on our own experience at Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi, and now considering the Dubai Expo 2020 win, we are extremely positive about the continued growth of the travel industry within the UAE, both in terms of reputation as well as visitor numbers.
“It has been a fantastic year. Looking ahead, our key focus will be on maintaining this momentum and with this in mind, we will have some very exciting initiatives and events planned for 2014 that will excite guests of all ages from any market.
“We will also be further promoting our dedicated private events and corporate packages, which allow guests to book out the entire park or any of the zones in order to further engagement with corporate clients.”