Making the most of the region's natural assets and adding a few man-made ones, the Middle East is an adventure tourism destination in the making. Lucy Taylor considers if the region can hold its own in this lucrative globally-established market.
Climbing a sheer cliff face, swimming through shark-infested waters or driving at break-neck speed across sand dunes may not be everyone's idea of a holiday, but it certainly appeals to an increasing number of today's travellers.
Adventure tourism is a growing phenomenon - and one which savvy hotels are making the most of.
Whether working with surrounding natural resources or creating man-made adventures, more and more properties in the Middle Easy are catering to this market.
The MENA region's adventurous leisure options available today manifest themselves in a variety of ways, from whale spotting at Zamani Zanzibar Kempinski in Tanzania or mountain biking in the Hajar Mountain range near Hatta Fort Hotel to snowboarding at the indoor ski slope Ski Dubai next to Kempinski Mall of the Emirates - and demand for holidays of this ilk is growing.
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Not for the faint-hearted
As more and more hotels are demonstrating, successfully catering for adventure tourism is predominantly about playing to your strengths as a property.
At the Zamani Zanzibar Kempinski in Tanzania, for example, the stunning natural surroundings lend themselves perfectly to adventurous activities.
"We offer a wide range of active sports and activities such as deep sea diving, quad races, ocean kayaking, kite surfing, deep sea fishing, whale spotting, swimming with the dolphins and cross-country motorbike rides," says general manager Puneet Singh. And with unique selling points such as the island's famous spice farms and the Jozani Forest, home to the Red Colobus monkey, the property is certainly not short of material for unique excursion options.
"We offer all activities that are possible on and from the island," Singh concludes.
But success in this market does not necessarily come down to relying on what nature has provided, as the new Atlantis, The Palm property situated on Dubai's man-made island The Palm Jumeirah demonstrates.
Set to open this month, the awe-inspiring property has been created to offer something for everyone, as the property's senior vice president/general manager, hotel operations Amadeo Zarzosa is quick to point out.
"It goes without saying for adventurous tourists there's Aquaventure. That's our water park, which includes the Leap of Faith, our 27.5m vertical slide which takes you into a shark tank - now that's an adventure!" says Zarzosa.
"We have all sorts of water slides and rapids - that whole park is really an adventure on its own. But we also have an excellent beach where you can do water sports," he continues.
"You can't do motorized activities because of The Palm regulations - they want to keep it pristine. But you've still got a range of water sports available, such as windsurfing and kayaking, and trips such as deep sea fishing can be arranged through our concierge.
"Then we have Dolphin Bay, home to 28 bottlenose dolphins, where people can swim with them and interact with them. And the great thing is that you don't just go to see the dolphins, you go for a whole experience with the dolphins, a whole education."
With the region's warm weather and excellent beaches, it's understandable that water sports and water-related activities should be the most developed - and most popular - field of adventure tourism at the moment.
As a result, it's important for hotels providing such options to mark themselves out in some way, as complex general manager for Le Méridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort and Marina and the Westin Dubai Michael Scully explains.
"We've got all the basic resort leisure options: sailing, wakeboarding, water skiing, things like that. Then we've also got a series of yachts, from catamarans to our two 35-foot Achenbaults - the fastest sailing boats in their class (class two) in the world.
"The whole idea of these was to set up Americas Cup-style racing. So if you're a company on a corporate excursion and you want to do something a bit competitive and team-building, it's great," he says. "That's really our key difference, which no one else has; and it's been very successful."
But adventurous guests will not be limited to water sports.
"We've been looking at things like climbing frames, we've already introduced helicopter trips, we're tying up with a company that does sea plane trips, we're looking at doing trips to Musandam in Oman with overnight boat races - so there's a lot of things that we've got planned, and they will be quite exciting if they come off," Scully says.
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