April 14, 2024
Abu Dhabi's 2030 Tourism Plan
Abu Dhabi has announced it's 2030 tourism development plan, and we'll dive into the highlights. The 26 key metrics are divided into 4 main pillars that they hope will bring in 40 million visitors by 2030.
Abu Dhabi has announced it's 2030 tourism development plan, and we'll dive into the highlights. The 26 key metrics are divided into 4 main pillars that they hope will bring in 40 million visitors by 2030.
WEBVTT
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From our studios, this time in
London and San Diego. I wonder if
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you can guess who is in which
place this is green tagged theme park in
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thirty right, I think it is. I don't know what's going on.
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I'm Philip and I'm joined. You're
in a different You're in like five different
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time zones all at once right now, and I'm in your stomping ground.
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So you know, there you go. Here, we are, here,
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we are for another week. It's
green tagged. I'm here with Scott Scott
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our first story. I want to
get a lot of feedback from you on
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because I feel like you're more the
expert in this region. But I'll go
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through the highlights here from we just
heard this week from the Department of Culture
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and Tourism in Abu Dhabi that they've
announced their tourism strategy twenty thirty. I'm
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going to read excerpts here from Impark
magazine, which did a really nice little
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summary of the press release, and
we'll put link to the empark's story in
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the show notes. It says here
that the strategy seeks to boost visitor numbers
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from nearly twenty four million in twenty
twenty three to thirty nine million by twenty
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thirty overnight and same day with a
seven percent year on year growth. It
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intends to almost double international overnight visitors
from three point eight million in twenty twenty
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three to seven point two million in
twenty thirty, and expand hotel room availability
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from thirty four thousand to fifty two
thousand, and further enhance the holiday segment,
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the holiday home segment, to diversify
a combination offeras. To achieve the
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strategy of doing all this. By
twenty thirty, they have twenty six key
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initiatives and they've basically broken them into
four areas. So twenty six initiatives,
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that's less important. There's four main
areas they're focusing on. I'll very briefly
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summarize this areas, but the first
one is offerings in city activations. That's
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basically just saying that they're going to
add more stuff to do basically faith clarides.
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The thing the piece I thought was
interesting is they specifically called out overall
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boosting the events calendar of the year
round concerts and festivals and family events,
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so like eliminating shoulder seasons, you
know, which we talked about that a
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lot that's pillar one. Pillar two
is promotion at marketing essentially that they're going
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to try and market more. That's
what I got out of it. That's
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it. Number three. Infrastructure and
Mobility is interesting because they say they want
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to increase hotel room availability across various
categories, including accessible and luxury options,
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glamping and farm stays, which are
very interestingly specifically called those out through valued
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collaborators. They're going to enhance roads, public transport and infrastructure and simplifying travel
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within and boosting visitor in flow through
increased flight seat capacity with both local international
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airlines. I think that those that's
also going to be important. The flight
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availability is a big issue. And
then lastly, I think the thing that's
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most important in my opinion is the
last pillar, which is the licensing and
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regulation. They said, both visitor
experience and tourism business operators will see will
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be greatly enhanced with streamlined visa licensing
and regulation process in collaboration with the government
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agencies. Enhanced platforms and processes will
reduce timeframes for all applicants and permits to
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improve the ease of doing business and
attract investment. Four pillars Wrapping up here,
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they stated that they kind of recapped
to say that in twenty twenty three,
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the Abu Dhabi tourism sector saw a
remarkable surge, welcoming twenty four million
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visitors. It's a twenty seven percent
rise in hotel guests and fifty four percent
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increase in international guests, bolstered the
economy with an approximate for a nine billion
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contribution. Blah bah blah, blah
blah. The key markets that they listed
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from twenty twenty three were India,
Russia, the UK, China, and
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the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. So
last thing is just to put this in
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perspective. I always like to put
things in perspective and just look at the
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numbers. So they're essentially saying right
now they're at twenty four million visitors.
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They want to get to thirty nine
by twenty thirty, so like six ish
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years right to get from twenty four
to thirty nine million. And just for
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context, Las Vegas currently sees about
forty million in visitors, so that would
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put them kind of squarely in that
range of being similar to Las Vegas if
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they can get there, and Orlando
is seventy five million. So I would
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say for our US listeners think of
it them trying to be more like Vegas
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and maybe like half the size of
the Orlando thing. So but when you
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think about that, the mean Vegas
does have an enormous amount of all the
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things they've stated. So when they
say increasing things to do and increasing the
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hotel capacity, the infrastructure, all
that stuff, I think is important for
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that. So but Scott, you
know you have done a lot of work
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in that area. You know a
lot of folks there. I know I
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want to I want to hear your
thoughts on all of this. Well,
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I'm I am very excited to see
to first of all, to see some
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of these numbers. But let me
just help our listeners understand for those of
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you who are not familiar with with
the Abu Dhabi situation currently, I guess
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is the easiest way to phrase it. So, yes, Abu Dhabi is
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and has been. You know,
I was, I was there a year
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ago. I was still there.
And by the way, any of our
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any of our friends in Abu Dhabi, I happy aid. We're recording this
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on need so we'll are on the
the end of the end of Ramadan.
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So, uh, the idea here
is this is something that has been coming
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for a long long time, and
I'm glad to see that it's finally starting
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to roll out. When I was
there last year, it was very clear
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to me that they had really taken
their time and really invested and grew in
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an intelligent manner. If people have
been to Abu Dhabi, especially in the
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theme park area, especially on Yas
Island for example, they would go and
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say they they have all the parks, but none of the people. So
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it wasn't until they finished the fourth
major park, which was was See World
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Abu Dhabi that they started to see
this. You know, even in this
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in this article, it says twenty
three saw twenty seven percent rise in hotel
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guests and a fifty four percent increase
in international guests. So basically what that
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means is, all of a sudden, they hit the tipping point. They
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hit the tipping point where people won't
travel for three parks, but they will
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travel for four. And there's a
huge announcement that has been made about you
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know, Wizarding World of Harry Potter
coming to Warner Brothers World in the in
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the not too distant future. So
they've been going through beta testing for quite
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some time. The other thing I
want people to be aware of is that
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when they say tourism strategy for twenty
thirty, there is an entire segment of
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the government that does nothing but this
kind of strategy, and it's got a
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great deal of support, both in
attention and finance. So this is not
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just hey, gang, this is
a good idea. This is here's what
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we're going to do, and we've
got the government dollars to support it,
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and the government clout to support it. So these things are not just you
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know, when we talk about initiatives
like countrywide initiatives in the US or state
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wide initiatives in the US, those
are usually suggestions and ideas. This is
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actionable plans. So when people you
may be looking at it going, well,
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wait, there's four pillars and twenty
six key initiatives. Wow, that's
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just crazy. That's way too.
That is a plan that will be executed.
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That's just you know, that's just
the way they're set up. That's
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the way that works. So let's
kind of break down these four pillars and
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I'll share my limited perspective on it. I think that you know, offering
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offerings and city activations. Once again, like I said, they're they're adding
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a new from a theme park perspective, they're adding a new They're adding the
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new Wizarding World to Warner Brothers World, which is slated to be something really
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large and unique. I'm curious.
I'm very curious. I want to go
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back and see it. But in
addition to that, you know, there's
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also other islands because basically what they've
done, because it's all government planned,
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is they put all the theme parks
in one location in one island. They
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put all the museums and the high
end art facilities on another island. There
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is of course downtown in the waterfront
in Abu Dhabi. So they've created kind
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of their own theme park esque design
style. And don't think, by the
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way, that they haven't looked at
every other theme park in the world or
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every other area in the world,
especially Orlando. You know, you mentioned
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Orlando in comparison. They have done
research on Orlando, and they now have
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a bunch of blank slate space so
they don't have to tear anything down,
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and they have a bunch of money
so they can just invest and build it
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in a way that they think that
is a proven has a proven track record.
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So you know, when you when
you get into like the the arts
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area, it has the There is
a Louver Museum in Abu Dhabi. I
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believe it's just about to be completed, if it hasn't been completed. At
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Gougenheim, there's also strong, strong
facilities for ballet, for opera, for
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orchestra, and they keep all of
those kind of in one area as well.
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So it's designed to make it if
you have a specific desire or specific
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thing you want to see or type
of thing you want to see, you
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can go to the same place and
get it all in one, one lump
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sum So it's sort of like going
to Orlando and going to Walt Disney World,
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except each of the parks have a
different brand, So instead of them
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all being a different different side of
Disney, they're all a different brand,
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and they're very easy to get from
one to the other to the other.
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But hold that thought because I will
talk about that in just a second.
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Number two Promotion and marketing. I
mean, this is this is a no
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brainer. They finally have enough to
they finally have enough to advertise, so
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they're doing it. And I know
that I just in fact, just before
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we started, just before we started
shooting, I got an Instagram real notification
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from from SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, which
is beautiful. It's starting to get starting,
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they're starting to see you're starting to
see a lot more of those.
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I'm hoping that you'll start to see
them from the other parks as well.
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But I think they're leading with SeaWorld
Abu Dhabi because at the moment it still
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has a lot of the tests that
you're looking for. It's you know,
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largest and s testest, and that's
going to change very shortly because of what's
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going to happen in China. But
that's a different story. So I think
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they're leading with that, and they're
getting that promotion out there to let people
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know, hey, we're here and
we've got cool stuff to do infrastructure and
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mobility. I'm really excited to see
that. You know, they're talking about
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international airlines and they're talking about increased
flight seat capacity. That's great. One
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of the things that they have been
trying to do and I asked this question
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while I was there and heard many
many answers, none of them the same,
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but one of the things that they're
trying to do specifically on Yas Island,
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which again where the racetrack is where
the big movie studio is and where
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all the theme parks are. Is
to improve the ground transportation between the hotels.
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They've got great hotels, and they've
got a lot of them. What
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they don't have is a good transportation
system to connect them all. Now.
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When I was there last year,
they were testing not only autonomous buses,
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but autonomous taxis, and I took
a couple of them. I didn't get
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a chance to take the autonomous bus
because they weren't taking passengers yet, but
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I did take the autonomous taxi a
couple of different times, and because it
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was still in beta testing, they
had what was called a safety officer who
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actually sat behind the wheel with their
hands not touching it so that we could
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drive around and just in case something
went wrong, because you know, when
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you're when you're testing something out,
you want to make sure that you don't
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have bad press before you even open. So I think that's that was their
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Their solution is to increase their autonomous
vehicles so that you can get from one
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place to another smoothly and easily.
I was told that other plans that got
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cut were giant skyride systems like they
have at Walt Disney World. Hmmm,
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again, Orlando visit or subways,
which was a little bit more of a
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challenge simply because they're almost at sea
level, So that was a little bit
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of a little bit of a risk
there. But they do recognize that they
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need ways to easily get people from
one place to another, and Yeaes Island
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is quite a ways from downtown,
so they also need to continue to increase
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that. Now, I will say
that uber and taxis are rampant and it's
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super easy to get them, super
easy to get them. So there's that,
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and then finally the visa licensing and
regulation. So I will say that
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as of last year, visas were
relatively easy if you're from the US.
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It's it's interesting though that the US
is not one of the countries they named
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in the in their target. Is
it interesting? I mean, I don't
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think that. Well I do.
I think it's very interesting because I'm meant
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for US, though, isn't it? Oh? Well, I disagree.
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I've had a lot of friends from
the US who have visited and said it
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was phenomenal. It was, But
I think the biggest I think the biggest
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challenge there is it takes too long
to get there and you can have a
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similar experience in Orlando. Yeah,
which you've already you know, they've already,
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they're already trying to copy. So
so that that is the thing while
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we're on the visa thing and the
and you brought that up that that was
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something I noticed as well, that
they didn't mention the US at all,
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which I think tracks with the plan. Like I don't, I don't know
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how to say this, you know, I don't. I don't know how
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they're not ready to go up against
you, they're not ready to go up
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against Orlando yet. And I also
think that we're not ready to do it
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and they know it. Yes,
Well, maybe I'm not sure about that
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part. But I think it's almost
like I don't want to say they don't
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care about us, but I don't
know that we're like as important as other
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segments that are closer. And I
think that's what the visa thing is.
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It's more like it's trying to make
it easier for people that are, you
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know, not like Americans. Like
you know, India is the most populous
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area and it now is in a
better position than China was previously. And
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look how much everyone was doting over
China when their economy is doing well and
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they were looking at doing tourism,
and that's the same thing we're looking at
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with India here. I think that's
more the opportunity. I think that's why
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you see it spelled out pretty plainly
here that they're I mean, they're looking
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at India, India, Russia,
the UK. To an extent, I
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would say this is almost put in
order. I mean, I think the
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probably the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is
so it'd probably be like India, I
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would say India, and then Saudi
Arabia and then like Russia, UK,
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China, China, you know,
depending on how well their economy goes or
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whatnot. Where that goes with being
able to travel. But I doesn't that
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seem more like what they're They're trying
to make it easier for those folks to
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get in well. And jokingly they
would say when I was there, they
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would say, we want to be
the we want to be the Orlando of
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this hemisphere. Yes, so yes, this makes that's yes exactly. But
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I will say as an American,
my visa status was very very easy,
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very very easy when it came to
tourism. I don't think that was I
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showed up, you know, and
I had a passport, so that was
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that was great. I do think
it's interesting though, because I will say
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that India, my friends who were
working on the project from India had a
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bit more of a challenge. So
maybe that's what they're trying to talk about,
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is to make it easier for these
particular countries. There were a lot
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of Russians when I was there,
a lot of Russians, and I think
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that they are I think they are
wealthy Russians who are trying to find ways
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to get away from any potential financial
challenges in their own country. I think
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that there were quite a few people
there from the UK. There were not
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as many people there from China.
And I will say Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
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may be visiting now because they're they're
they're going to become they're going to enter
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into an arms race JIA in Saudi
Arabia, which is the General Entertainment Authority,
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the government equivalent in Saudi in k
s A tow to you a they
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are they have a similar initiative that
they are trying to be the quintessential business
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location, the quintessential entertainment location,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,
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And they're going to have to kind
of play a little bit of catch
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up right now. But at this
moment, they are investing huge amounts to
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to make it that sort of entertainment
race of who could which which Middle Eastern
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country can be the the the major
player when it comes to theme parks in
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the trap. And I think,
similar to the US, that's going to
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help. I mean, the reason
I cited like Orlando and Vegas is because
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you know, they're they're I mean, we have a lot of destinations,
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you know, in America with tourism
is a big thing. And I think
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that the more in an area that's
relatively close, you know, I mean
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relatively speaking, I mean getting between
the two is is you know, it's
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pretty close. I think that's gonna
help overall. I Mean my big takeaway
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from this was one, to your
point, it's like they've declared their intention
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to make this an arms rate or
more you know, of a I mean,
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come on putting out the twenty thirty
day, you know, it feels
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a little bit like it definitely is
a is an arms race. But also
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the second thing is to me,
it feels like they're definitely putting their their
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flag in the ground in terms of
trying to deliberately attract people from the India
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market. And that's I mean,
that's I think right now, that's a
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hot market. I mean, that's
a very I don't want to say hot
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market. It's like a we're all
looking at that market right now. I
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mean we were previously before the pandemic, right we were looking at China,
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and now we're waiting to see how
how well is China going to recover,
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But we're all looking at India because
it's recovering well and it has the biggest
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population and it has the best middle
class going into it. So it's like
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if if they could and if they
could hit India and China boom well.
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And the other side of it too
is India. There's there's a lot of
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people from India who are living and
working in the UAE right now. A
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vast majority of the workers that were
installing or that are installing new parks are
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from India. So you've got you've
got the the lower end on the economic
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scale who are looking to be uh
they're not day labors but project labors.
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Let's put it that way, and
then you know, some of them are
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actually staying in the UAE and then
their families come over and she just so
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it makes total sense to target it
because there's a there's a huge Indian population
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in the UAE already, and to
target even more international tourism to come there
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makes makes total sense. And like
you say, it's a huge market,
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and it's a huge market that's expanding
as well. Shoot, where the ducks
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are flying? You know? Well, okay, cool, Well that was
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so you're in London. That was
a lot. What are you doing in
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London? Gosh, that was a
lot. I am in London. I
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was here playing find the Gantams in
a few installations that are around and one
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of the places that we have some
lights in that I was going to go.
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I was going I went to check
out is the Warner Brothers Tour London,
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which has the making of Harry Potter, And I want to talk a
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little bit about that and about the
other thing I went to see, which
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was the Stranger Things stage show.
And the thing that got me, which
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is actually it actually reminds me of
the first time I went to Abi Dhabi
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and I went and I saw the
louver there, and I saw one of
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brother's role and I saw all those
things, and I was blown away by
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the quality of the installations I was. I was like, I was like,
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it was one of those things where
you're like, this is incredible and
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beautiful and there's no lines which coming
from you know, Dizzeyland or you know,
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Magic Kingdom, You're just like,
oh my god, like it's so
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yes and you don't have to you
don't have to plan out every fifteen seconds
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of your correct You're like, oh, this is how it was supposed to
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be right or how it used to
be when you know, decades ago.
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But but the making a fair I
had no idea. I just want to
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point out I had no idea.
I was unprepared for this Warner Brothers experience.
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I was wholly unprepared for this.
I had no I mean, this
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thing is basically a theme park.
I mean it is, like it's enormous,
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so I would I didn't give myself
that much time. I've so I
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was unprepared in like so many different
levels. I didn't give myself very much
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time. So just to set the
context here, like I didn't So basically,
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I guess it's like a giant museum, but like a linear museum,
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if that makes sense. So like
it's like a linear experience in that you
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know, there's a pre show,
you'll arrive, there's there's a there's a
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pre show, and there's another pre
show, and there's like an opening segment,
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and there's some scenes that have like
theatrical moments, like you walk in
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to the Great Hall and they have
kids come up and like open the doors
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and you go into the Great Hall, and then there's like the there's there's
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show that they demonstrate what it looks
like how they film the movies, Like
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there's that stuff. But then essentially
it's a linear experience where you walk through,
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but your walk through on a set
path, you know, and you're
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going through all the sets. But
I mean the sets are incredible. Many
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of them have time DMX sequences,
so you know, you go through Gringots
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and it's and it's the it's it's
the I mean, it's the size of
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Universal like it this whole thing is
is is like I would say, larger
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than the than the Universal Theme Parks, but it's the scale of of that
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brought to life. And then there's
several like when you go to the Gringods,
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you'll see the dragon. There's a
dragon sequence that just triggers, you
308
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know, every few minutes. Right, So there's theatrical elements to it,
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I guess. So I guess in
that way, it's a little bit like
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a It is like a museum in
that there are you know, there there's
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education, right, you can read
about what's going on. It tells you
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what's going on. And it's not
like a theme park in that there's no
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rides, but that immersive, that
blend of immersive, you know, that
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line of you you know, you
walk through diagon Alley and you're on cobblestones
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and there's the full facades around you, and there's explanations of things going on.
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I mean, it is. The
immersion is incredible. It's I was
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absolutely blown away. And for context, I didn't read anything, and I
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didn't stop, and I didn't buy
anything because the line to check out was
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an hour, and I didn't eat
anything. There's a restaurant halfway through.
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There's there's a great hall at the
entrance, and then and the food hall,
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and then there's also food halfway through. I didn't do any of those
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things. And it took me three
hours, and like, I didn't thought
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it was like a haunted house where
I'm like not stopping, I'm just I'm
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walking, and I didn't. I
also didn't go into the Privet Drive.
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They had the whole house. They
recreated the whole house from Privet Drive that
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you could walk through, and they
had you know, the botany area,
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all those I didn't go through any
of that because the lines are too long.
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So I think the biggest one of
the biggest takeaways for me was just
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the amount of immersive experience and just
really looking at this as the future of
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these types of experience branded experiences like
this, and then also the it was
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so busy. I was absolutely,
like, you know, astound. I
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was astounded, I will say astounded
at the amount of people that were there.
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It was I don't know if it
was because it was holiday or I
334
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mean it was it. It felt
like Magic Kingdom on a holiday, you
335
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know, where you where you can't
walk because there are people blocking you.
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So I did. I was walking, you know, the whole way,
337
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but it was more like the walking
that you do when you're in a Halloween
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Horn Night's house in Orlando, where
like you are technically moving, but also
339
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you know, there are people in
front of you, so it's you know,
340
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you can't like you kind of gotta
go with the crowd. And that
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it was so full that even though
these spaces were museum type spaces where they
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have a lot there should be room
to move around people, there were so
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many people that you couldn't physically move
that the pace you wanted to. So
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I don't know if that's normal.
If that's normal, there printing money and
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congratulations to them. Well and so, Philip, I don't know whether you
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know this or not, but I
don't do you know how long they've been
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open. We can google it.
It's it's it's it's the ultimately reason.
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Well and I and while you do
that, I will I will share my
349
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thought because this was exactly the same
way this this intellectual property was when it
350
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opened at Universal Studios. It was
and to this day it is by far
351
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the most crowded area in either Islands
of Adventure or Studios. And it there
352
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was a time where you couldn't you
know, you had to wait for an
353
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hour just to get into one of
the shops. So when you say that
354
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it was an hour to check out
that's not uncommon. There was a time
355
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where they actually had a speed line
queue to get into the shops, and
356
00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:02.000
part of that. Part of that
was in design, in the fact that
357
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they wanted it to feel so realistic
that they didn't make the shops at Universal
358
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Orlando gigantic megamarts. They made them
small, quaint the way they were in
359
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the film, being true to the
brand itself. The same is true and
360
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still is true. Still is true
when you go to buy a Wand,
361
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if you go through the Wand experience, you have to wait for I've done
362
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the Wand experience twice and the only
reason I've done it at all is because
363
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I was staying in a Universal hotel
and got early access to Hogsbead, so
364
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it was there were very few people
in there, and I decided everybody else
365
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is running for the ride, I'm
going to run to the Wands because otherwise
366
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I will have to wait two hours
to watch probably somebody I've worked with before,
367
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because it's all the older, older
Central Florida actors do this really interesting
368
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.599
but very short performance and presentation that
is designed solely to sell you a one.
369
00:28:07.039 --> 00:28:10.920
It's it's mind boggling. It opened
in it is it is. Yeah,
370
00:28:10.920 --> 00:28:14.359
it is mind moggling. I remember
I was there for opening of the
371
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hair Potter area. It opened in
twenty twelve. Oh, so it's it's
372
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so it's still it's still surging.
It's still surging. I it's still And
373
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I think I think that goes to
a trend we've been talking about, which
374
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really is like the after shots,
after shocks of the pandemic are still even
375
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even in our pre conversation we talked
a little bit about some of the after
376
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the floodgates or the floodgates are still
over. I'm just you know, some
377
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things have now, you know,
for example, trying to get to Disly
378
00:28:42.759 --> 00:28:45.759
in Paris. He used to be
a direct line and they discontinued that service.
379
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So some things, you know,
just changed forever. And I'm not
380
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sure if this I mean the crowds
here anyway that I just wanted to talk
381
00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:57.680
about a little bit about the experience
and how it's absolutely incredible and the crowds
382
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:00.960
completely sold out. I mean,
you know, I I thought it would
383
00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:03.599
be I thought one of those things
you could just buy a ticket and it
384
00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:07.799
was like no, I'm here for
a week and I could only find two
385
00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:11.880
time slots in the week that I
was here that I could buy a single
386
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:18.799
ticket for and it it was absolutely
anyway. I also wanted to mention so
387
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:22.039
imagine, imagine taking that and now
adding rides to it, and that is
388
00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:29.200
kind of the mindset of the Wizarding
World expansion for this world, and I
389
00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:34.880
don't And also it very briefly about
the Stranger Things thing I don't want to
390
00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:37.920
talk about. I don't want to
ruin anything for anybody, so I'm not
391
00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:41.680
gonna talk about any of that.
That The thing that I took most away
392
00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:45.400
most for that is it is kind
of the hot show right now at the
393
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West End. It is new,
it opened relatively recently here in the West
394
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End, and it is only here. So this was this is like an
395
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exclusive thing to this area, which
is probably why. But here's the thing.
396
00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:00.920
Okay, I think the Stranger Things
as an American thing, and you
397
00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:04.599
know, I get Harry Potter.
It's it's you know, it's the birthplace's
398
00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:10.119
origin is here. So the ip
is very strong. I get it.
399
00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:14.559
But Stranger Things show, we're sold
out, and I would say, on
400
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:19.000
average, the tickets are twice that
what they are for like everything else,
401
00:30:19.160 --> 00:30:22.599
So like twice the cost of Wicked
or Matilda, any of those things.
402
00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:29.480
Like so even I mean the cheapest
ticket I could find for when I was
403
00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:32.720
here, you're talking one hundred and
thirty, one hundred and fifty pounds,
404
00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:36.960
and then you know that's one times, you know, one in a quarter
405
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:38.640
time, so whatever, that would
be almost two hundred dollars, you know,
406
00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:41.519
for the cheap seats, you know, and it's every it's completely sold
407
00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:48.200
out, like every showing completely sold
It's crazy, but yes, it's crazy,
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00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:51.880
though. I just think it underscores
kind of the power that we talk
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about the power of these ips and
and how and looking at their expansions across
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the different areas is just is mind
boggling. And I think it's interesting because
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these ips both appeal to multiple generations. That's the thing that makes them work.
412
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Stranger things appeals to people my age
because we were the age of those
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kids based in the timeline. The
kids look at it as oh, look
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00:31:17.079 --> 00:31:21.079
it's kids, and they're going through
all these harrowing things. Sound familiar.
415
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:23.160
It's exactly the same thing that Harry
Potter does. It's exactly the same thing
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00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:26.200
that Wizarding World does. But one
of the things that we do is we
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00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:30.039
try to keep our shows to about
a half hour. So it is time
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00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:33.640
for us to say goodbye. And
I know that Philip is trying to keep
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his eyes open because there's a huge
time difference between here and there, and
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00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:41.799
so anyway on behalf of Philip,
Hernandez and myself Scott Swinson. This has
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been Green Tank Theme Park and thirty. We so appreciate that you listen and
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watch. Please tell your friends and
we will see you next week.
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From our studios, this time in
London and San Diego. I wonder if
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you can guess who is in which
place this is green tagged theme park in
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thirty right, I think it is. I don't know what's going on.
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I'm Philip and I'm joined. You're
in a different You're in like five different
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time zones all at once right now, and I'm in your stomping ground.
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So you know, there you go. Here, we are, here,
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we are for another week. It's
green tagged. I'm here with Scott Scott
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our first story. I want to
get a lot of feedback from you on
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because I feel like you're more the
expert in this region. But I'll go
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through the highlights here from we just
heard this week from the Department of Culture
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and Tourism in Abu Dhabi that they've
announced their tourism strategy twenty thirty. I'm
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going to read excerpts here from Impark
magazine, which did a really nice little
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summary of the press release, and
we'll put link to the empark's story in
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the show notes. It says here
that the strategy seeks to boost visitor numbers
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from nearly twenty four million in twenty
twenty three to thirty nine million by twenty
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thirty overnight and same day with a
seven percent year on year growth. It
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intends to almost double international overnight visitors
from three point eight million in twenty twenty
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three to seven point two million in
twenty thirty, and expand hotel room availability
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from thirty four thousand to fifty two
thousand, and further enhance the holiday segment,
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the holiday home segment, to diversify
a combination offeras. To achieve the
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strategy of doing all this. By
twenty thirty, they have twenty six key
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initiatives and they've basically broken them into
four areas. So twenty six initiatives,
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that's less important. There's four main
areas they're focusing on. I'll very briefly
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summarize this areas, but the first
one is offerings in city activations. That's
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basically just saying that they're going to
add more stuff to do basically faith clarides.
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The thing the piece I thought was
interesting is they specifically called out overall
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boosting the events calendar of the year
round concerts and festivals and family events,
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so like eliminating shoulder seasons, you
know, which we talked about that a
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lot that's pillar one. Pillar two
is promotion at marketing essentially that they're going
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to try and market more. That's
what I got out of it. That's
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it. Number three. Infrastructure and
Mobility is interesting because they say they want
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to increase hotel room availability across various
categories, including accessible and luxury options,
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glamping and farm stays, which are
very interestingly specifically called those out through valued
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collaborators. They're going to enhance roads, public transport and infrastructure and simplifying travel
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within and boosting visitor in flow through
increased flight seat capacity with both local international
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airlines. I think that those that's
also going to be important. The flight
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availability is a big issue. And
then lastly, I think the thing that's
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most important in my opinion is the
last pillar, which is the licensing and
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regulation. They said, both visitor
experience and tourism business operators will see will
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be greatly enhanced with streamlined visa licensing
and regulation process in collaboration with the government
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agencies. Enhanced platforms and processes will
reduce timeframes for all applicants and permits to
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improve the ease of doing business and
attract investment. Four pillars Wrapping up here,
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they stated that they kind of recapped
to say that in twenty twenty three,
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the Abu Dhabi tourism sector saw a
remarkable surge, welcoming twenty four million
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visitors. It's a twenty seven percent
rise in hotel guests and fifty four percent
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increase in international guests, bolstered the
economy with an approximate for a nine billion
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contribution. Blah bah blah, blah
blah. The key markets that they listed
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from twenty twenty three were India,
Russia, the UK, China, and
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the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. So
last thing is just to put this in
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perspective. I always like to put
things in perspective and just look at the
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numbers. So they're essentially saying right
now they're at twenty four million visitors.
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They want to get to thirty nine
by twenty thirty, so like six ish
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years right to get from twenty four
to thirty nine million. And just for
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context, Las Vegas currently sees about
forty million in visitors, so that would
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put them kind of squarely in that
range of being similar to Las Vegas if
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they can get there, and Orlando
is seventy five million. So I would
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say for our US listeners think of
it them trying to be more like Vegas
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and maybe like half the size of
the Orlando thing. So but when you
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think about that, the mean Vegas
does have an enormous amount of all the
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things they've stated. So when they
say increasing things to do and increasing the
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hotel capacity, the infrastructure, all
that stuff, I think is important for
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that. So but Scott, you
know you have done a lot of work
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in that area. You know a
lot of folks there. I know I
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want to I want to hear your
thoughts on all of this. Well,
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I'm I am very excited to see
to first of all, to see some
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of these numbers. But let me
just help our listeners understand for those of
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you who are not familiar with with
the Abu Dhabi situation currently, I guess
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is the easiest way to phrase it. So, yes, Abu Dhabi is
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and has been. You know,
I was, I was there a year
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ago. I was still there.
And by the way, any of our
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any of our friends in Abu Dhabi, I happy aid. We're recording this
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on need so we'll are on the
the end of the end of Ramadan.
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So, uh, the idea here
is this is something that has been coming
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for a long long time, and
I'm glad to see that it's finally starting
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to roll out. When I was
there last year, it was very clear
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to me that they had really taken
their time and really invested and grew in
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an intelligent manner. If people have
been to Abu Dhabi, especially in the
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theme park area, especially on Yas
Island for example, they would go and
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say they they have all the parks, but none of the people. So
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it wasn't until they finished the fourth
major park, which was was See World
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Abu Dhabi that they started to see
this. You know, even in this
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in this article, it says twenty
three saw twenty seven percent rise in hotel
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guests and a fifty four percent increase
in international guests. So basically what that
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means is, all of a sudden, they hit the tipping point. They
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hit the tipping point where people won't
travel for three parks, but they will
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travel for four. And there's a
huge announcement that has been made about you
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know, Wizarding World of Harry Potter
coming to Warner Brothers World in the in
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the not too distant future. So
they've been going through beta testing for quite
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some time. The other thing I
want people to be aware of is that
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when they say tourism strategy for twenty
thirty, there is an entire segment of
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the government that does nothing but this
kind of strategy, and it's got a
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great deal of support, both in
attention and finance. So this is not
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just hey, gang, this is
a good idea. This is here's what
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we're going to do, and we've
got the government dollars to support it,
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and the government clout to support it. So these things are not just you
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know, when we talk about initiatives
like countrywide initiatives in the US or state
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wide initiatives in the US, those
are usually suggestions and ideas. This is
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actionable plans. So when people you
may be looking at it going, well,
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wait, there's four pillars and twenty
six key initiatives. Wow, that's
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just crazy. That's way too.
That is a plan that will be executed.
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That's just you know, that's just
the way they're set up. That's
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the way that works. So let's
kind of break down these four pillars and
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I'll share my limited perspective on it. I think that you know, offering
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offerings and city activations. Once again, like I said, they're they're adding
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a new from a theme park perspective, they're adding a new They're adding the
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new Wizarding World to Warner Brothers World, which is slated to be something really
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large and unique. I'm curious.
I'm very curious. I want to go
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back and see it. But in
addition to that, you know, there's
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also other islands because basically what they've
done, because it's all government planned,
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is they put all the theme parks
in one location in one island. They
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put all the museums and the high
end art facilities on another island. There
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is of course downtown in the waterfront
in Abu Dhabi. So they've created kind
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of their own theme park esque design
style. And don't think, by the
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way, that they haven't looked at
every other theme park in the world or
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every other area in the world,
especially Orlando. You know, you mentioned
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Orlando in comparison. They have done
research on Orlando, and they now have
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a bunch of blank slate space so
they don't have to tear anything down,
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and they have a bunch of money
so they can just invest and build it
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in a way that they think that
is a proven has a proven track record.
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So you know, when you when
you get into like the the arts
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area, it has the There is
a Louver Museum in Abu Dhabi. I
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believe it's just about to be completed, if it hasn't been completed. At
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Gougenheim, there's also strong, strong
facilities for ballet, for opera, for
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orchestra, and they keep all of
those kind of in one area as well.
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So it's designed to make it if
you have a specific desire or specific
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thing you want to see or type
of thing you want to see, you
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can go to the same place and
get it all in one, one lump
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sum So it's sort of like going
to Orlando and going to Walt Disney World,
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except each of the parks have a
different brand, So instead of them
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all being a different different side of
Disney, they're all a different brand,
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and they're very easy to get from
one to the other to the other.
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But hold that thought because I will
talk about that in just a second.
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Number two Promotion and marketing. I
mean, this is this is a no
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brainer. They finally have enough to
they finally have enough to advertise, so
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they're doing it. And I know
that I just in fact, just before
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we started, just before we started
shooting, I got an Instagram real notification
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from from SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, which
is beautiful. It's starting to get starting,
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they're starting to see you're starting to
see a lot more of those.
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I'm hoping that you'll start to see
them from the other parks as well.
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But I think they're leading with SeaWorld
Abu Dhabi because at the moment it still
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has a lot of the tests that
you're looking for. It's you know,
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largest and s testest, and that's
going to change very shortly because of what's
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going to happen in China. But
that's a different story. So I think
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they're leading with that, and they're
getting that promotion out there to let people
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know, hey, we're here and
we've got cool stuff to do infrastructure and
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mobility. I'm really excited to see
that. You know, they're talking about
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international airlines and they're talking about increased
flight seat capacity. That's great. One
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of the things that they have been
trying to do and I asked this question
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while I was there and heard many
many answers, none of them the same,
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but one of the things that they're
trying to do specifically on Yas Island,
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which again where the racetrack is where
the big movie studio is and where
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all the theme parks are. Is
to improve the ground transportation between the hotels.
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They've got great hotels, and they've
got a lot of them. What
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they don't have is a good transportation
system to connect them all. Now.
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When I was there last year,
they were testing not only autonomous buses,
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but autonomous taxis, and I took
a couple of them. I didn't get
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a chance to take the autonomous bus
because they weren't taking passengers yet, but
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I did take the autonomous taxi a
couple of different times, and because it
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was still in beta testing, they
had what was called a safety officer who
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actually sat behind the wheel with their
hands not touching it so that we could
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drive around and just in case something
went wrong, because you know, when
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you're when you're testing something out,
you want to make sure that you don't
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have bad press before you even open. So I think that's that was their
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Their solution is to increase their autonomous
vehicles so that you can get from one
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place to another smoothly and easily.
I was told that other plans that got
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cut were giant skyride systems like they
have at Walt Disney World. Hmmm,
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again, Orlando visit or subways,
which was a little bit more of a
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challenge simply because they're almost at sea
level, So that was a little bit
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of a little bit of a risk
there. But they do recognize that they
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need ways to easily get people from
one place to another, and Yeaes Island
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is quite a ways from downtown,
so they also need to continue to increase
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that. Now, I will say
that uber and taxis are rampant and it's
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super easy to get them, super
easy to get them. So there's that,
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and then finally the visa licensing and
regulation. So I will say that
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as of last year, visas were
relatively easy if you're from the US.
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It's it's interesting though that the US
is not one of the countries they named
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in the in their target. Is
it interesting? I mean, I don't
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think that. Well I do.
I think it's very interesting because I'm meant
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for US, though, isn't it? Oh? Well, I disagree.
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I've had a lot of friends from
the US who have visited and said it
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was phenomenal. It was, But
I think the biggest I think the biggest
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challenge there is it takes too long
to get there and you can have a
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similar experience in Orlando. Yeah,
which you've already you know, they've already,
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they're already trying to copy. So
so that that is the thing while
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we're on the visa thing and the
and you brought that up that that was
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something I noticed as well, that
they didn't mention the US at all,
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which I think tracks with the plan. Like I don't, I don't know
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how to say this, you know, I don't. I don't know how
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they're not ready to go up against
you, they're not ready to go up
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against Orlando yet. And I also
think that we're not ready to do it
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and they know it. Yes,
Well, maybe I'm not sure about that
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part. But I think it's almost
like I don't want to say they don't
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care about us, but I don't
know that we're like as important as other
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segments that are closer. And I
think that's what the visa thing is.
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It's more like it's trying to make
it easier for people that are, you
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know, not like Americans. Like
you know, India is the most populous
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area and it now is in a
better position than China was previously. And
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look how much everyone was doting over
China when their economy is doing well and
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they were looking at doing tourism,
and that's the same thing we're looking at
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with India here. I think that's
more the opportunity. I think that's why
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you see it spelled out pretty plainly
here that they're I mean, they're looking
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at India, India, Russia,
the UK. To an extent, I
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would say this is almost put in
order. I mean, I think the
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probably the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is
so it'd probably be like India, I
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would say India, and then Saudi
Arabia and then like Russia, UK,
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China, China, you know,
depending on how well their economy goes or
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whatnot. Where that goes with being
able to travel. But I doesn't that
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seem more like what they're They're trying
to make it easier for those folks to
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get in well. And jokingly they
would say when I was there, they
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would say, we want to be
the we want to be the Orlando of
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this hemisphere. Yes, so yes, this makes that's yes exactly. But
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I will say as an American,
my visa status was very very easy,
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very very easy when it came to
tourism. I don't think that was I
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showed up, you know, and
I had a passport, so that was
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that was great. I do think
it's interesting though, because I will say
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that India, my friends who were
working on the project from India had a
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bit more of a challenge. So
maybe that's what they're trying to talk about,
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is to make it easier for these
particular countries. There were a lot
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of Russians when I was there,
a lot of Russians, and I think
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that they are I think they are
wealthy Russians who are trying to find ways
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to get away from any potential financial
challenges in their own country. I think
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that there were quite a few people
there from the UK. There were not
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as many people there from China.
And I will say Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
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may be visiting now because they're they're
they're going to become they're going to enter
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into an arms race JIA in Saudi
Arabia, which is the General Entertainment Authority,
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the government equivalent in Saudi in k
s A tow to you a they
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are they have a similar initiative that
they are trying to be the quintessential business
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location, the quintessential entertainment location,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,
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And they're going to have to kind
of play a little bit of catch
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up right now. But at this
moment, they are investing huge amounts to
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to make it that sort of entertainment
race of who could which which Middle Eastern
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country can be the the the major
player when it comes to theme parks in
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the trap. And I think,
similar to the US, that's going to
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help. I mean, the reason
I cited like Orlando and Vegas is because
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you know, they're they're I mean, we have a lot of destinations,
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you know, in America with tourism
is a big thing. And I think
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that the more in an area that's
relatively close, you know, I mean
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relatively speaking, I mean getting between
the two is is you know, it's
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pretty close. I think that's gonna
help overall. I Mean my big takeaway
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from this was one, to your
point, it's like they've declared their intention
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to make this an arms rate or
more you know, of a I mean,
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come on putting out the twenty thirty
day, you know, it feels
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a little bit like it definitely is
a is an arms race. But also
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the second thing is to me,
it feels like they're definitely putting their their
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flag in the ground in terms of
trying to deliberately attract people from the India
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market. And that's I mean,
that's I think right now, that's a
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hot market. I mean, that's
a very I don't want to say hot
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market. It's like a we're all
looking at that market right now. I
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mean we were previously before the pandemic, right we were looking at China,
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and now we're waiting to see how
how well is China going to recover,
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But we're all looking at India because
it's recovering well and it has the biggest
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population and it has the best middle
class going into it. So it's like
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if if they could and if they
could hit India and China boom well.
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And the other side of it too
is India. There's there's a lot of
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people from India who are living and
working in the UAE right now. A
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vast majority of the workers that were
installing or that are installing new parks are
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from India. So you've got you've
got the the lower end on the economic
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scale who are looking to be uh
they're not day labors but project labors.
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Let's put it that way, and
then you know, some of them are
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actually staying in the UAE and then
their families come over and she just so
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it makes total sense to target it
because there's a there's a huge Indian population
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in the UAE already, and to
target even more international tourism to come there
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makes makes total sense. And like
you say, it's a huge market,
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and it's a huge market that's expanding
as well. Shoot, where the ducks
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are flying? You know? Well, okay, cool, Well that was
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so you're in London. That was
a lot. What are you doing in
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London? Gosh, that was a
lot. I am in London. I
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was here playing find the Gantams in
a few installations that are around and one
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of the places that we have some
lights in that I was going to go.
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I was going I went to check
out is the Warner Brothers Tour London,
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which has the making of Harry Potter, And I want to talk a
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little bit about that and about the
other thing I went to see, which
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was the Stranger Things stage show.
And the thing that got me, which
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is actually it actually reminds me of
the first time I went to Abi Dhabi
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and I went and I saw the
louver there, and I saw one of
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brother's role and I saw all those
things, and I was blown away by
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the quality of the installations I was. I was like, I was like,
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it was one of those things where
you're like, this is incredible and
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beautiful and there's no lines which coming
from you know, Dizzeyland or you know,
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Magic Kingdom, You're just like,
oh my god, like it's so
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yes and you don't have to you
don't have to plan out every fifteen seconds
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of your correct You're like, oh, this is how it was supposed to
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be right or how it used to
be when you know, decades ago.
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But but the making a fair I
had no idea. I just want to
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point out I had no idea.
I was unprepared for this Warner Brothers experience.
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I was wholly unprepared for this.
I had no I mean, this
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thing is basically a theme park.
I mean it is, like it's enormous,
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so I would I didn't give myself
that much time. I've so I
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was unprepared in like so many different
levels. I didn't give myself very much
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time. So just to set the
context here, like I didn't So basically,
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I guess it's like a giant museum, but like a linear museum,
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if that makes sense. So like
it's like a linear experience in that you
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know, there's a pre show,
you'll arrive, there's there's a there's a
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pre show, and there's another pre
show, and there's like an opening segment,
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and there's some scenes that have like
theatrical moments, like you walk in
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to the Great Hall and they have
kids come up and like open the doors
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and you go into the Great Hall, and then there's like the there's there's
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show that they demonstrate what it looks
like how they film the movies, Like
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there's that stuff. But then essentially
it's a linear experience where you walk through,
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but your walk through on a set
path, you know, and you're
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going through all the sets. But
I mean the sets are incredible. Many
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of them have time DMX sequences,
so you know, you go through Gringots
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and it's and it's the it's it's
the I mean, it's the size of
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Universal like it this whole thing is
is is like I would say, larger
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than the than the Universal Theme Parks, but it's the scale of of that
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brought to life. And then there's
several like when you go to the Gringods,
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you'll see the dragon. There's a
dragon sequence that just triggers, you
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know, every few minutes. Right, So there's theatrical elements to it,
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I guess. So I guess in
that way, it's a little bit like
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a It is like a museum in
that there are you know, there there's
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education, right, you can read
about what's going on. It tells you
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what's going on. And it's not
like a theme park in that there's no
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rides, but that immersive, that
blend of immersive, you know, that
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line of you you know, you
walk through diagon Alley and you're on cobblestones
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and there's the full facades around you, and there's explanations of things going on.
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I mean, it is. The
immersion is incredible. It's I was
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absolutely blown away. And for context, I didn't read anything, and I
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didn't stop, and I didn't buy
anything because the line to check out was
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an hour, and I didn't eat
anything. There's a restaurant halfway through.
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There's there's a great hall at the
entrance, and then and the food hall,
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and then there's also food halfway through. I didn't do any of those
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things. And it took me three
hours, and like, I didn't thought
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it was like a haunted house where
I'm like not stopping, I'm just I'm
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walking, and I didn't. I
also didn't go into the Privet Drive.
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They had the whole house. They
recreated the whole house from Privet Drive that
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you could walk through, and they
had you know, the botany area,
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all those I didn't go through any
of that because the lines are too long.
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So I think the biggest one of
the biggest takeaways for me was just
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the amount of immersive experience and just
really looking at this as the future of
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these types of experience branded experiences like
this, and then also the it was
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so busy. I was absolutely,
like, you know, astound. I
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was astounded, I will say astounded
at the amount of people that were there.
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It was I don't know if it
was because it was holiday or I
334
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mean it was it. It felt
like Magic Kingdom on a holiday, you
335
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know, where you where you can't
walk because there are people blocking you.
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So I did. I was walking, you know, the whole way,
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but it was more like the walking
that you do when you're in a Halloween
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Horn Night's house in Orlando, where
like you are technically moving, but also
339
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you know, there are people in
front of you, so it's you know,
340
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you can't like you kind of gotta
go with the crowd. And that
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it was so full that even though
these spaces were museum type spaces where they
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have a lot there should be room
to move around people, there were so
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many people that you couldn't physically move
that the pace you wanted to. So
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I don't know if that's normal.
If that's normal, there printing money and
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congratulations to them. Well and so, Philip, I don't know whether you
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know this or not, but I
don't do you know how long they've been
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open. We can google it.
It's it's it's it's the ultimately reason.
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Well and I and while you do
that, I will I will share my
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thought because this was exactly the same
way this this intellectual property was when it
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opened at Universal Studios. It was
and to this day it is by far
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the most crowded area in either Islands
of Adventure or Studios. And it there
352
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was a time where you couldn't you
know, you had to wait for an
353
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hour just to get into one of
the shops. So when you say that
354
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it was an hour to check out
that's not uncommon. There was a time
355
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where they actually had a speed line
queue to get into the shops, and
356
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part of that. Part of that
was in design, in the fact that
357
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they wanted it to feel so realistic
that they didn't make the shops at Universal
358
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Orlando gigantic megamarts. They made them
small, quaint the way they were in
359
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the film, being true to the
brand itself. The same is true and
360
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still is true. Still is true
when you go to buy a Wand,
361
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if you go through the Wand experience, you have to wait for I've done
362
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the Wand experience twice and the only
reason I've done it at all is because
363
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I was staying in a Universal hotel
and got early access to Hogsbead, so
364
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it was there were very few people
in there, and I decided everybody else
365
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is running for the ride, I'm
going to run to the Wands because otherwise
366
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I will have to wait two hours
to watch probably somebody I've worked with before,
367
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because it's all the older, older
Central Florida actors do this really interesting
368
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but very short performance and presentation that
is designed solely to sell you a one.
369
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It's it's mind boggling. It opened
in it is it is. Yeah,
370
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it is mind moggling. I remember
I was there for opening of the
371
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hair Potter area. It opened in
twenty twelve. Oh, so it's it's
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so it's still it's still surging.
It's still surging. I it's still And
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I think I think that goes to
a trend we've been talking about, which
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really is like the after shots,
after shocks of the pandemic are still even
375
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even in our pre conversation we talked
a little bit about some of the after
376
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the floodgates or the floodgates are still
over. I'm just you know, some
377
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things have now, you know,
for example, trying to get to Disly
378
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in Paris. He used to be
a direct line and they discontinued that service.
379
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So some things, you know,
just changed forever. And I'm not
380
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sure if this I mean the crowds
here anyway that I just wanted to talk
381
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about a little bit about the experience
and how it's absolutely incredible and the crowds
382
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completely sold out. I mean,
you know, I I thought it would
383
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be I thought one of those things
you could just buy a ticket and it
384
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was like no, I'm here for
a week and I could only find two
385
00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:11.880
time slots in the week that I
was here that I could buy a single
386
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:18.799
ticket for and it it was absolutely
anyway. I also wanted to mention so
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imagine, imagine taking that and now
adding rides to it, and that is
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kind of the mindset of the Wizarding
World expansion for this world, and I
389
00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:34.880
don't And also it very briefly about
the Stranger Things thing I don't want to
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00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:37.920
talk about. I don't want to
ruin anything for anybody, so I'm not
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00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:41.680
gonna talk about any of that.
That The thing that I took most away
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00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:45.400
most for that is it is kind
of the hot show right now at the
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00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:51.480
West End. It is new,
it opened relatively recently here in the West
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00:29:51.559 --> 00:29:55.359
End, and it is only here. So this was this is like an
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00:29:55.400 --> 00:29:57.359
exclusive thing to this area, which
is probably why. But here's the thing.
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00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:00.920
Okay, I think the Stranger Things
as an American thing, and you
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00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:04.599
know, I get Harry Potter.
It's it's you know, it's the birthplace's
398
00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:10.119
origin is here. So the ip
is very strong. I get it.
399
00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:14.559
But Stranger Things show, we're sold
out, and I would say, on
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00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:19.000
average, the tickets are twice that
what they are for like everything else,
401
00:30:19.160 --> 00:30:22.599
So like twice the cost of Wicked
or Matilda, any of those things.
402
00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:29.480
Like so even I mean the cheapest
ticket I could find for when I was
403
00:30:29.519 --> 00:30:32.720
here, you're talking one hundred and
thirty, one hundred and fifty pounds,
404
00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:36.960
and then you know that's one times, you know, one in a quarter
405
00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:38.640
time, so whatever, that would
be almost two hundred dollars, you know,
406
00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:41.519
for the cheap seats, you know, and it's every it's completely sold
407
00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:48.200
out, like every showing completely sold
It's crazy, but yes, it's crazy,
408
00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:51.880
though. I just think it underscores
kind of the power that we talk
409
00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:56.960
about the power of these ips and
and how and looking at their expansions across
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00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:00.240
the different areas is just is mind
boggling. And I think it's interesting because
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00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:06.880
these ips both appeal to multiple generations. That's the thing that makes them work.
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00:31:07.400 --> 00:31:11.319
Stranger things appeals to people my age
because we were the age of those
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00:31:11.400 --> 00:31:15.880
kids based in the timeline. The
kids look at it as oh, look
414
00:31:17.079 --> 00:31:21.079
it's kids, and they're going through
all these harrowing things. Sound familiar.
415
00:31:21.119 --> 00:31:23.160
It's exactly the same thing that Harry
Potter does. It's exactly the same thing
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00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:26.200
that Wizarding World does. But one
of the things that we do is we
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00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:30.039
try to keep our shows to about
a half hour. So it is time
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00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:33.640
for us to say goodbye. And
I know that Philip is trying to keep
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00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:37.880
his eyes open because there's a huge
time difference between here and there, and
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00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:41.799
so anyway on behalf of Philip,
Hernandez and myself Scott Swinson. This has
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00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:44.960
been Green Tank Theme Park and thirty. We so appreciate that you listen and
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00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:48.079
watch. Please tell your friends and
we will see you next week.
