Business Traveller (Middle East)
Lap of luxury
Corporate events slip into top gear
It’s a humid Saturday night in the UAE capital but the rising temperatures have more to do with being strapped into the passenger seat of a powerful Ferrari F488 GTB in full head gear staring at a dash-mounted GoPro camera with one of the fastest drivers on the planet behind the wheel.
The setting is the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi where three times F1 champion and Ferrari ambassador Giancarlo Fisichella is treating a group of more than 70 prospective customers and media influencers to a ‘hot lap’ around the circuit at speeds of up to 250km an hour.
Fisichella, 43, from Rome, laughs but doesn’t break sweat as his passengers variously shriek, reel or stumble from his car with jelly legs proclaiming the experience was the highlight of their weekend.
And that’s a tall order given the elaborate activities that have taken place over the past few days where wealthy Gulf residents have been feted in the city’s finest restaurants, cruised on multimillion dollar yachts, instructed by Ferrari’s team of professional race car ‘pilots’ and hosted at the ostentatious trackside five-star hotel Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi. Enzo Ferrari’s granddaughter was also in attendance and when asked to name her favourite Ferrari, she said succintly: “the next one”. All these elements came together for Ferrari’s two-day corporate hospitality event to promote the F488 GTB, billed as Passione Rossa (Red Passion), which involved a procession of 70 Ferraris driven by the guests from Yas Island to Al Maryah Island with a special police escort. The Ferrari 488 GTB sprints from 0-100 km/h in 3 seconds flat and from 0-200 km/h in just 8.3. “Already the pace from the 430 to the 458 was a huge step and I said at the time it can’t get much better than this,” said Fischella, when we’re back on terra firma. “But the difference between the 458 and the 488 is another huge step – in power, in angling, in down force. It’s unbelievable.” Corporate hospitality and fast cars are a good fit; they have to keep pushing boundaries in the hope their brands will fly at the chequered flag and not end up in the pits as competition closes in on
Yas Viceroy’s ‘Ultimate Bucket List Experience’ costs a cool AED120,000 per couple.
every side. Beneath their glamorous perceptions are tough commercial worlds, with leading drivers and brands supported by hundreds in the form of support teams; and everyone knows the F1 calendar hops around the world, in many ways mirroring the everchanging dynamics within the international hotel industry. Every one wants to get on the top of the podium and have their name up in lights.
The opulence of the Ferrari event will be repeated on a larger, more public scale between November 2527 when Yas Island is in the spotlight once more for the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The global headlines may be full of economic woes but F1 is its own circuit within a circuit.
This year Yas Viceroy’s ‘Ultimate Bucket List Experience’ costs a cool AED120,000 per couple. For that lofty price tag, you’ll receive a four-night stay in an island suite; dinner at Quattro Passi; Omakase menu at Kazu; access to Yas Waterworld and Ferrari World Abu Dhabi; as well as to post-race concerts and headline acts Rihanna, Lionel Richie and The Chemical Brothers; and not forgetting a pit lane walk on the 24th.
At a time when hotel rates are softening universally, such prices may seem all the more extraordinary, but luxury brands – and by extension ‘luxury experiences’ – tend to perform well even during economic slowdowns.
Yas Marina’s smart move has been to create an infrastructure that, while focused on racing, now extends far beyond it. More than 600,000 people visited its two key island attractions, Yas Waterworld and Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, this summer, and the latter welcomed 600 leading tour operators, buyers and travel partners from the Travel Agents Association of India in October. Yas Mall held a Fashion Week last month that featured 12 runway shows.
More changes are coming. Miral, which recently launched a new identity for the island, said it plans to host 100,000 corporate travellers and swell its inventory to 4,000 rooms across family, lifestyle and business hotels by 2022. Future attractions include ‘Clymb’, the world’s widest flight chamber and tallest indoor climbing wall, which is due to open in 2018. Aldar Properties has awarded the early works package, valued at AED 155 million, for its flagship golf and waterfront development, Yas Acres, to Bauer Geotechnical Specialized Foundation.
For the F1 weekend, Yas Marina Circuit’s corporate hospitality packages range from AED8,425 for a two-day ticket in the Marsa Suites to AED19,900 for a three-day ticket at the Paddock Club overlooking the pit lane (click on yasmarinacircuit.com).
The Podium Lounge event will take place at RUSH on the Yas Viceroy aerobridge directly above the track, which will transform into a “glamorous ultra lounge” featuring VIP suites offering a party experience with the racing community for up to 600 guests each night. Limited VIP Tables cost from AED5,000-45,000 and General Admission Passes from AED200.