Atlantis, The Palm Always more to explore, new experiences to indulge in
2021 has been a transformative year for Atlantis, The Palm Dubai. Home to the largest waterpark in the world, 31 restaurants and bars, the largest open-air aquarium in the Middle East and Africa, the resort offers a vast array of unforgettable activities and experiences. Kyp Charalambous, VP- Sales, Atlantis, The Palm Dubai, assures that when travellers return to Atlantis, there is something new and extraordinary to experience at every turn.
Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, I hear 2021 was a great year financially for Atlantis, The Palm Dubai?
It was. Q4 was the best quarter we’ve had in history. Other than a slight dip when the country went into lockdown, we are thankful to say that business has been consistent throughout. Because we’re a global brand with such a diverse offering, we welcome guests from more than 80 countries around the world, meaning if one market were not able to travel, we were able to focus on another.
India and Atlantis, The Palm Dubai have always been a fantastic success story, yet despite challenges posed by the pandemic, we still welcomed over 30,000 Indian guests over 2021, which we are incredibly grateful for.
We’re very thankful that our occupancy has remained buoyant into 2022. In March, the resort achieved the highest room revenue and highest resort total revenue in the 13-year history of Atlantis. We are breaking our records every month.
Atlantis, The Palm Dubai recently underwent a full resort refurbishment of the rooms, suites, and other areas of the hotel. What were the factors that led to this decision?
That’s correct; during the pandemic, one of our strategies was to keep building and creating. Our goal is that we always want to ensure we have new enhancements and things to do and see for returning guests who visit season after season and year after year. Despite the pandemic and everything that was taking place, we held true to this core value and continued to work on various projects throughout the resort to enhance its positioning, not only for today but for the future.
We focused on a broad spectrum of updates across the resort, but the common denominator is that it’s all about experiences, and as we appeal to such a vast demographic of international visitors and guests (from over 200 countries), we want to continuously ensure we have the right facilities, upon which we can build these extraordinary experiences around.
Atlantis, The Palm Dubai is a destination in itself. Is your team focusing on longer lengths of stay for your patrons?
2021 has been a transformative year for the resort, and we have continued to evolve to ensure the best for our guests. We’re now home to the largest waterpark in the world, 31 restaurants and bars, the largest open-air aquarium in the Middle East and Africa, plus a vast array of unforgettable activities and experiences that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The waterpark alone requires at least two to three days to try every slide. With this in mind, a longer length of stay is now almost a must for our guests to truly experience the resort to its fullest.
You also have a global partner booking rewards programme for agents. Please throw some light on it?
We invite our valued Indian travel trade fraternity to join our Global Booking Rewards Programme
atlantisresortsincentives.com in 2022, which we’ve designed to enable us to thank our trusted, handpicked partners for their continued loyalty in choosing Atlantis as their preferred resort destination. The platform essentially allows us to reward Agents making reservations for Atlantis, The Palm with a host of special incentives for every night booked.
What are your communication and marketing strategies and what kind of trade interactions do you do with your travel partners in the India market?
We work very closely with the travel industry and cannot thank the trade enough for their incredible support and fun promoting Atlantis, The Palm. We hosted multiple trade events and trade familiarisation trips, and individual travel trade partners. Atlantis also launched ‘Atlantis on Tour’, where we visited many cities in India; we attended large roadshows and smaller client events and have worked very closely across market segments and geographies. We also have lots in the pipeline for the Indian travel trade, including some really exciting partnerships with entertainment, luxury retail, automobile, and financial sectors.
Tell us a little about the role the Indian tourists play for Atlantis, The Palm Dubai?
We have worked closely with the India market since pre-opening, both in terms of sales and marketing, and media relations, and we’re proud to have built a tremendous brand among consumers and travel industry partners in metros and tier II and III towns. The customer response has only grown and been solidified over the years based on a solid business relationship and mutual respect. We work very closely with the travel industry and cannot thank the trade enough for their incredible support and fun promoting Atlantis, The Palm Dubai.
What is your expectation from the India market post-COVID and which segments of the business are you eyeing? Will you also be targeting the MICE and Weddings business from India?
India is one of the top five source markets, so you can imagine how important it is for us. Having an inventory of about 1546 rooms and suites, we consider each segment to be significant. We rely on all the segments–leisure, MICE, and weddings, and we specialise in all of them.
Destination weddings are crucial for Atlantis, with over 40 per cent of all wedding business coming from India; a share we are actually looking to increase in 2022 and beyond. To support this, we have recently completed a $3.1M refurbishment of our ballroom, giving the space a brand-new neutral and fresh look and feel that suits all styles of weddings and events. We’ve also added a host of new experiences and activities that are great additions to the wedding experience, including the largest waterpark expansion in history, making Atlantis Aquaventure the biggest waterpark in the world and we’ve launched the region’s only licensed nail salon Nailology, which is the perfect size for a private event such as a bridal shower and the space can also be completely customised.
What is the next focus for Atlantis, The Palm Dubai?
I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say it’s opening Atlantis The Royal (Q4, 2022). We describe it as the most ultra-luxury experiential resort in the world in that it’s a little more modern and sophisticated in its presentation, but that still captures the essence and experience of Atlantis. The property will also be home to 795 resort rooms and suites, 44 of which include soaring private infinity pools. Further enhancing the region’s culinary credentials, the property will also introduce a further 18 restaurants to the destination, including eight by celebrity chefs, including Heston Blumenthal and Jose Andres, as well as a world-first beach/pool club by Nobu.
We are just working through the Grand Opening plan now and our intention is, in the fourth quarter of this year, to host one of the most unforgettable openings the world has ever seen.
We will also continue our journey to become Aquaventure World, which will see our waterpark transition into the number one theme park in Dubai, featuring the largest waterpark in the world. It will be the first fully-fledged integrated aquatic theme park in the region and will contribute to Dubai’s objective to be the number one entertainment destination in the world.
We also have some amazing initiatives planned as part of our sustainability programme Atlantis Atlas Project. In the next couple of months, we will be taking our pledge to eliminate single-use plastic bottles by next year to the next level but completing the build of our own bottling plant. We are also concluding a Solar Panel Project intending to reduce energy in Aquaventure Waterpark. Most excitingly, over the last year, 1USD for every marine mammal interaction went into the Atlas Project fund. From next month, we will be awarding our first set of projects, which will essentially see Atlantis invest in local initiatives that protect wildlife in the UAE and Arabian Gulf.