Atef Nagib Atef Nagib

What impact will the opening have on leisure tourism to Abu Dhabi?
We are measuring the impact in coordination with Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) and Abu Dhabi Sports Council over the next 12 months. Once we have a complete year to look at, we can judge and benchmark ourselves. During the large international events, we expect 300-400 additional hotel rooms to be occupied each night, some events stretch over 10 days so that’s a lot.

Have you partnered with specific hotels to accommodate spectators and teams overnight?
We are dealing with all Abu Dhabi hotels, but the Yas Island hotels suit us because it’s convenient.

Phase three of the development is a 400-room hotel to complement the facilities. The Al Forsan Hilton will open mid-2013.

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So phase one — the club facilities — is complete, and phase three is the hotel, what is phase two?
The second phase is a residential gated community comprising 850 units including villas and apartments, which we expect will open in the third quarter of 2012. The villas will be partially for sale and the apartments will be on leasehold.

Who has funded the project?
It’s the vision of the government and we had every support from them except the money so it’s privately funded through the banks and has to pay itself back.

When do you expect to see ROI?
It shouldn’t take more than four-to-six years with the sale of a number of villas. That’s why I thought of the residential development – to support the project. Otherwise the resort wouldn’t have paid itself back for 20-30 years if optimistic.

What are the resort’s current main sources of revenue?
Our major revenue comes from day-to-day walk-in guests, team-building groups and members. These markets will make up 90-95% of revenue. Some of the national events will make some money from fees for participants and subscribers, and from the F&B.

How do the membership packages offered work?
We have memberships for families (US $5445 / AED 20,000 per year), couples ($4844 / AED 15,000 per year), and singles ($2722 / AED 10,000 per year) for access to the whole club. The fees are structured to give members value. We grant members 40-50% discount on the sports and leisure facilities.

They get priority for the facilities during peak times and enjoy privileges such as invites to events and discounts on facilities such as F&B. They can come as many times as they like.

How many memberships do you have now and what are your target membership numbers?
Currently we don’t have many memberships because we only recently started our marketing campaign in the GCC, but we have almost 120 members. The club can cater to 2500 members and this is our target. I believe we can reach that within one year to a year and a half.

How will you fill the resort during the hot summer months?
Business should boom in the summer because all of our facilities have substantial, air-conditioned indoor areas, except the water sports which suit the summer weather anyway.

And finally, please tell us a little about your own career background?
I’m from Egypt but have lived in the UAE since 1983. I'm an accountant by profession and have been part of this project since 2005.