La Perle by Dragone

La Perle by Dragone, the region’s first permanent show housed in an aqua-theatre, is set to target group and MICE bookings from its opening in March 2017 onwards.

The 1,300-seat venue, located in Al Habtoor City, will have 450 performances of the show per year — twice nightly, five days a week. It will feature a cast of 60 artists and 80 technicians. The theatre itself will feature an ‘aqua-stage’, filled with 2.5 million litres of water, and will have the ability to change from a dry platform to aquatic stage and vice versa.

Tickets will range from AED 399 to AED 999 (US $110-272).

It’s the first product of its kind in the region, but La Perle by Dragone director of sales Kent Cooper is not fazed. He is set to lead commercial operations including direct sales, ticketing, food and beverage, merchandise and sponsorship sales.

Cooper, with 25 years of hospitality experience, says he “jumped” at the opportunity. “It really was the ultimate in hospitality, that you get to be part of creating an experience that is once-in-a-lifetime for people. And that’s why we’re all in hospitality at the end of the day, it’s to create experiences,” he says, with enthusiasm.

Cooper continues: “I’ve been here 15 years. This was an opportunity to support DTCM, support Dubai and give a little bit back to the community, and do something brand new and not too far off from hospitality.”

He reveals the La Perle team has been in conversation with “every hotel company, every hotel, every travel agent, DMC” and the response has been overwhelming. MICE business, he stresses, is on the team’s radar.

“We’re looking at the long lead business and that’s through DMCs and hotel sales teams. We are well above projections on our groups’ business, with 50 group leads on our books already, all the way into 2019. From a business aspect, this is where theatre is so powerful.”

While he currently estimates MICE will be 20% of the business (“on the low side,” he adds), Cooper admits the demand is more than that.

La Perle is also working with hotels to raise awareness of what the resident show can offer guests. One element of this is the ‘concierge programme’, where the team is ensuring that every hotel is enabled to book online for its guests in a timely fashion, showing them real-time inventory.

There is also investment into creating a bespoke booking engine for every hotel, as well as booking websites and DMCs, of which Cooper says, the team has already contracted the top 50 in Dubai. “We’re all here to increase demand drivers, and ideally lengthen guest stays,” adds Cooper. Group bookings are currently being taken with a view to launch the booking website to B2B clients and the travel trade in late October, and open up the B2C channel a month later.

Once La Perle is stabilised, Cooper is projecting approximately 90% tourists, and adds: “If you think about the DTCM mandate and our mandate, we are completely synced.”

He says his time as a hotelier has helped him in this role by way of understanding “how the travel trade works, how the corporate market works, how the hotels work — what they’re looking for, what’s important to them, how they make money, and, very importantly, how they transact”.

Cooper concludes: “Dubai is ready for this, and it’s all coming together.”

Story continues below
Advertisement