Landscaping a desert

Industry figures estimate that the GCC spend on garden and landscaping will reach US $16.4 billion (AED60.5 billion) over the next five years.

“Dubai authorities forecast that spend on landscaping projects this year would be worth US $44.9 million. Construction of parks and new golf courses in

the region for the next five years will fuel spending on gardens and landscaping,” says Eckhard Pruy, CEO of Epoc Messe Frankfurt.

A massive beautification drive will see the stretch of land from Dubai World Trade Centre behind the skyscrapers of Shaikh Zayed Road turned into a massive garden with the Business Bay lagoon flowing into the area, after the demolition and reconstruction of old villas in Satwa. Many such upcoming projects would add a total of 1,130,000m2 of greenery to Dubai’s landscape. 

Pruy feels that the garden and landscaping business is being driven by emerging trends and the rising popularity of garden outdoor spaces as an extension of modern homes. Growing material comforts, increasing annual household incomes and changing consumer lifestyles are resulting in increased

investments in gardening, and garden landscaping, thereby creating opportunities for growth in the industry.

The planned US $2.9 trillion Middle East spending on theme parks and other leisure and tourism projects in the next 20 years will boost outdoor living, and sales of garden and landscaping product and services, according to recent reports. These statistics were released at the Garden and Landscaping Middle

East exhibition, held in May at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

“Current estimates put the region’s attractions, entertainment and leisure segment at $10 billion in annual revenues already, with annual growth at 20% to 25%. The annual growth rate for the amusement sector in
Middle East, Europe and Africa is slated to be over 5% to 2011, with much of that growth predicted to come from the Middle East,” says Pruy.

This massive spending on theme parks will boost demand for gardening equipment and products, as well as services of landscaping design companies,

and landscape artists. The spending is set to dramatically increase over the years in the Middle East, as the planned international franchises of theme parks begin construction.

There are a number of theme parks under construction in the region including Restless Planet and Universal Studios Dubailand, Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, Entertainment City in Qatar, the Warner Bros. theme park in Abu Dhabi, the Marvel Entertainment Theme Park in Dubai, the WOW RAK theme park complex in Ras Al Khaimah and the Paramount Pictures-branded theme park in Dubai.

Dubailand, a $64 billion tourism, leisure and entertainment project being built in Dubai, announced that it will be the location for a new DreamWorks

Animation theme park, part of a strategic alliance with the US studio behind the box-office hit animated movie Shrek.

The construction of these theme parks will be undertaken in phases. The preliminary design work and site planning is underway, and the first phase is expected to open in 2012.

“Projects such as Dubailand will require vast amounts of landscaping, as will of course the Palm Islands and The World projects. Add to this, new golf courses and park facilities and it is not surprising that it is currently estimated that more than $16.4 billion is expected to be spent on gardens and landscaping over the next five years,” says Pruy.

Gavin Morlini, senior show manager of Garden and Landscaping Middle East,  forecasts that by 2010, “Dubai’s new homes, apartments, hotels and clubs will see as many as 5000 new swimming pools being built. The number of new houses currently being built will require over 5 million m2 of lawns to be laid according to our research.”

With many of the world’s construction cranes in operation, Dubai will remain the construction capital of the Gulf. Yet Abu Dhabi is set to be “the next Dubai”, while Jeddah is benefiting from Saudi Arabia’s development of its western region.

Also, Kuwait’s construction industry is one of the most robust in the region, with a value nearing US $3.9 billion and planned investments are estimated at more than US $10.7 billion, according to construction industry estimates.

Residential demand in Kuwait is also at an all-time high. Although several major projects are currently in the pipeline, with more than 70,000 units due to come online over the medium-term, there is a long waiting list for
housing.

These high figures indicate that the recession the worldwide market is currently facing is not affecting the Middle East landscaping industry.
John Wigham, marketing director for Cracknell, says that the market is holding up very well.

“Projects have long time scales, and oil-rich developers are not dependent on Western banks.  Some projects are on hold, but the market is generally looking upbeat,” he says.

In fact, there has been positive fallout in the region due to the economic recession in other parts of the world.

“We are now getting many CVs from top quality people willing to take up jobs in this region. Six months back, we were scrambling around looking to hire staff,” says Wigham.

Landscaping in the GCC is a competitive business fraught with high competition, shrinking profits and high capital expense. Sustainability has also become a key issue for developers in the region.

“Another challenge we face is that low-water-demand plants do not have the lush look that clients want for resort and hotel projects – so we are going through a re-education process.  Date palms remain very popular, despite their high water demand, due to their traditional significance in this region.

A ground-water survey has been commissioned for one particular project, so that the vegetation can take water straight from source.  A great advantage of

development in this region is that everything is being built from scratch, so we can put water recycling systems in place at the outset,” says Wigham.

Cracknell is also trying to use grey water for irrigation of vegetation, but a typical  challenge is the Yas Island project, where there are no people living on the island yet to generate grey water, so a pipeline will be temporarily connected to the mainland.