Qetaifan Projects, a company owned by Katara Hospitality, announced the award of the design and build contract for an edutainment and immersive water ride in Qetaifan Island North to the British company Sarner International.
The award-winning design and audiovisual studio designs, builds and installs innovative experiences for brands, museums and theme parks all over the world. Qetaifan Island North is part of Lusail City.
The contract is for the construction and augmented reality preparations for one of the 36 rides in the water park which will also have a 80m high icon tower.
The edutainment ride is inspired by the history of oil discovery in Qatar. It will explain the process of how oil is formed, located, drilled, extracted, transported, separated and then used. The ride follows a track through a set of scenes.
There will be special effects such as 3D mapping, animatronics, projection, special lighting, heat, vibration, lightning, drilling machines and fog screens to provide an exciting and immersive ride.
The design is in co-operation with Qatar Museums in order to ensure the quality of the content and its historical validity and deliver the best realistic image stemming from the Qatari perspective and culture for oil exploration and extraction.
Guests will enter the edutainment ride through an introductory exhibition which explains some of the background events that happened when oil was first suspected in the region. The attraction is housed in two buildings and one ride tower. A cave houses the log flume ride with entrance and exit exhibition areas to display the story, as well as disembarkation and embarkation of the ride.
The edutainment tower will be designed by Atkins. From the platform, the guests are taken on one of the three boats through the edutainment cave. Each boat can take a maximum of 16 guests. After exiting the cave, the guests can enjoy the outside section of the ride until they reach the edutainment tower where the boat will be elevated to another level so they can enjoy the second half of multimedia presentations.
Sheikh Nasser bin Abdulaziz al-Thani, head of the Business Development Department at Qetaifan Projects, described the project as part of the company's vision to make Qetaifan Island North the first entertainment destination of its kind in Qatar.
"There is no doubt that adding an edutainment ride introducing visitors to the history of Qatar would work to attract the largest number of tourists of different age groups, especially those interested in exploring different cultures. There will be regular school trips and more local partnerships with bodies and institutions interested in art and culture.
"This co-operation comes within a series of local and global partnerships that will prepare to host the 2022 World Cup and serve Qatar Vision 2030, especially since we at Qetaifan Projects are working to position Qetaifan Island North as a modern entertainment destination that provides a unique experience and actively contributes to providing sustainable solutions that serve tourism and hospitality."
The island will be an integrated community of entertainment and housing by providing all facilities and services, the most important of which is the school and the medical centre.
"The safety and security standards come on top of our interest in designing and constructing the water park, and accordingly we have chosen the best companies in this field to work on implementing and managing the project."
The water park and its icon tower will be managed and operated by Rixos International Hotels Group for the first time in Qatar, along with the hotel and the beach club. Rixos Group is famous for its ownership of the Land of Legends Water park in Turkey.
Ross Magri, managing director of Sarner International, said: "Sarner’s 50 year experience in both the theme park and museum markets is perfectly suited for this innovative project that combines the two, to create an immersive water ride that is not only fun but also educational. We are therefore delighted to have been awarded the contract, working with some of the best teams in the world to deliver what will be another award-winning project that will stand the test of time.”
The water park spans 137,000sqm and is surrounded by six beaches and a hotel with 350 keys, in addition to the beach club and retail area. The whole island spans approximately 1.3mn sqm, and the projects area extends to approximately 830,000sqm, a statement added.
