First Legoland Hotel in Middle East opening in Dubai in 2020

DXB Entertainments has revealed that the first Legoland Hotel in the Middle East is coming to Dubai Parks and Resorts in 2020.

The theme park hopes to have a total of 1,300 hotel rooms by 2020, with the opening of the Rove Hotel this year, and Legoland next year.

In a statement, DXB Entertainments CEO, Mohamed Almulla, confirmed: “We will have more than 1,300 hotel rooms available by 2020, as the Rove Hotel opens during 2019 and Legoland Hotel opens in 2020.”

DXB Entertainments, owners of Dubai Parks and Resorts, and Merlin Entertainments Group announced the Legoland Hotel in 2017.

Have an AWESOME first-time roller coaster experience on the Dragon’s Apprentice at @LEGOLANDDubai! Are you visiting us soon?🤩 #DubaiParksandResorts pic.twitter.com/hnGGsXsIaO

— Dubai Parks and Resorts (@dxbparksresorts) April 11, 2019

The 250-room hotel will be located adjacent to the existing Legoland Dubai theme park, and will feature Lego models in every room, a disco elevator, castle play area, and themed rooms.

The destination will be a 60:40 joint venture between DXB Entertainments and Merlin Entertainments. It will be operated by Merlin Entertainments.

DXB Entertainments reports drop in Q1 visitors

Amid its accommodation plans, DXB Entertainments has also recorded an 11 percent year-on-year decrease in visitor numbers to its parks in the first quarter of 2019.

Dubai Parks and Resorts recorded 760,000 visits during the first quarter of 2019, down 10.6 percent from 851,000 visits in the first quarter of 2018.

“A decline, during the second full-year of operations, is not unusual for a destination such as Dubai Parks and Resorts, which benefited from high penetration of its resident market in 2018, boosted by the introduction of the destination’s first annual pass and competitive resident pricing,” the company said in a statement.

Looking to hospitality for growth

However, Dubai Parks and Resorts’ first hotel, the Lapita Hotel, reported a healthy increase in average occupancy to 72 percent in the first quarter of 2019, up from 62 percent in the same quarter of 2018.

“The Lapita hotel’s 72 percent occupancy rate for the quarter shows that people are responding well to our existing hotel offering,” said Almulla.

“Our newly appointed chief commercial officer, Paul Parker, will lead our efforts to grow international visitation, which will in turn drive growth through a higher yielding visitor [demographic], spending more time at both our parks and our hotels.”