Wild Wadi Research Paper
It was named the 13th most attended water park in the world and has over 890,000 visitors per year and a daily capacity of 2500 guests. Wild Wad has 5 retail shops and 6 restaurants and with it’s unique cashless system that allows you to load money on to a special wristband, customers will have everything they need to enjoy a hassle free day in the park. The AJAX is a small country bordering Saudi Arabia and Oman. Although ABA Dhabi is the capital, many people are more familiar with Dublin because of its famous iconic buildings such as the Burr AH Arab (the worlds first seven star hotel) and the Burr Kalmia (the tallest alluding in the world).
The population of LAKE is approximately 8. 19 million with over 9 million tourists visiting Dublin every year. The local Emirate population only makes up about 1 1 % of the population and 85% of the labor force in the LAKE is made up of expatriates from around the world. The local language is Arabic although English is also commonly used. A big environmental challenge for the United Arab Emirates is its lack of natural freshwater sources. To help combat this, they have desalination plants, which filter the salt out of the seawater. This process has its drawbacks.
Hornier 2010) noted, “Perhaps the biggest drawback to desalination, however, is the effect it has on aquatic ecosystems surrounding the Arabian Peninsula. Desalination plants kill marine organisms – from phytoplankton to fish – on the intake, pump hot, saline sludge back into the ocean after purification, and emit considerable amounts of carbon dioxide (which accounts for why the AAU and neighboring countries Qatar and Bahrain, which also employ desalination, have the biggest per capita carbon footprints in the world). ” (Hornier, 201 0, Para. ) This in particular makes Wild Wad’s location unique hen it comes to sustainability issues because it is a water park located in an environment that does not have a lot of fresh water. Sustainability Issues: Environmental Impacts for Theme Parks: Positive: Theme parks have the resources available to help protect the environment Theme parks can foster conservation and preservation of natural resources They can lead by example by to protecting and preserving the environment. They can help in protecting flora and fauna and beautifying the local area. Negative: Water consumption.
With Wild Wad being located in a desert environment, this would affect them drastically. Air, noise, and light pollution. Waste management of both solid and liquid waste. Theme parks use of natural resources and land could lead to them destroying natural habitats of plants and animals. Overuse of land and other natural resources. Theme parks use a lot of energy. The introduction of toxic chemicals and pollutants. Water parks use some chemicals that are harmful to the environment such as chlorine. Theme parks often have a large carbon footprint. Economic Impacts for Theme Parks: Theme parks can generate growth for local businesses.
Increases employment opportunities for women, disadvantaged groups, and he local community. Creates a better standard of living for the local community. Assists in developing infrastructure in the area. The use of local food and supplies helps generate income for the local community. The multiplier effect. The revenues from tourists will be re-spent in the local community in other businesses. Negative: Inflation and increased cost of living in the area. Ticket prices for the Theme Park could be too high for the general public to be able to attend.
Employment can be seasonal or part-time with little room for advancement The jobs can be too low wage for the local community so rockers are often brought in from less developed countries. Local goods and services may not be used as Theme Parks may choose to ship supplies and food in from other countries. Social/Cultural Impacts for Theme parks: Encourages community involvement Promotes cultural exchange and encourages acceptance and awareness of different cultures by preserving and educating tourists about the local culture. Creates local pride in their culture and traditions.
Improves the local communities quality of life. Encourages development of historical and cultural exhibits. Tourists do not always respect the local customs and may act in an offensive manner to the local community. Visitors may intrude on the local communities privacy. Low wages and the seasonal nature of tourism can lead to hiring a mainly immigrant work force. The increase in tourists could lead to an increase of crime in the area. The demonstration effect. The local community may wish to dress and act like the tourists visiting their area and may lose some of their cue Trial traditions. Communication.
Aspects of the local culture may turn into commodities The area could be come too commercialese and lose its heritage and culture. Wild Wad is a great example of a theme park that has been leading the way or theme parks in trying to be sustainable. They have won numerous awards for all their hard work and were the first theme park in the world to be ISO certified. They have a lot of initiatives that make them not only a unique Water Park in the Middle East, but also around the world. Their website lists many initiatives they have taken to be more environmentally, and socially responsible.
Wild Wad’s Current Strategy: Water Management: They use state of the art filtration systems that ensure maximized water conservation. This is important because Wild Wad has uses a constant 6. 75 million litter’s of fresh water. All showers, taps and toilets have low-flow sensor units that reduce unnecessary wastage of water. All pool water resources in the watermark are re-circulated, filtered, treated and re-used. Pool Water systems are separated to avoid cross contamination. Policies and procedures are in place to reduce the risk of contamination (I. . Diaper Policy and Swimwear Policy). Water usage in all areas of the park is constantly monitored to accurately identify and target areas of concern. Energy Efficiency: Throughout the park, energy-efficient compact florescent bulbs and water pumps are used with variable frequency drives (Fads) to reduce the energy squired. Wild Wad has a computerized building management System that automatically switches off unnecessary utilities. This is especially important because as you can imagine, a water park of this size would use a lot of energy.
Awareness campaigns are conducted periodically to encourage their colleagues to turn off the lights and air-conditioners when leaving their offices or homes. Waste Stream Management: They recycle paper, cardboard, oils, organic waste, plastic, metal, electronic office equipment, batteries. Additionally, Wild Wad is involved in many other initiatives where they reduce, reuse and recycle waste. For example, rubber shoes, which have been used by their colleagues, are recycled to make other rubber products. Their water filtration system minimizes the use of chemicals, which would become harmful to the atmosphere when pool water evaporates.
They eliminated hazardous polystyrene containers from their restaurants and replaced them with high-quality recyclable paper plates and cups. They buy locally made products and in bulk to reduce packaging materials and unnecessary transport. Corporate Social Responsibilities & Community/ Promotions: They train their staff about the environment and what they can do to help achieve the company’s goals. Wild Wad is the main organizer of the very popular quarterly “Beach Clean-up” where colleagues and volunteers from the public assemble at an agreed location and pick up litter on the local beaches.
They have started a Sun and Safety Awareness Program that is dedicated to schools in Dublin to teach children about the environment. They partner with their neighboring Sumerian hotels, Mina A Salaam and Burr AH Arab, on a Turtle Rehabilitation Project They hold a Ladies Only Night every Thursday evening during the months of April to October where only woman and boys under 8 years old are allowed into the park. On these evenings the staff is also all woman. As you can see, Wild Wad has been doing a lot of different things to be more sustainable and responsible to the environment, and their community.
Skinny (2009) states “Wild Wad employs more than 700 people from 41 countries. ” (Skinny, 2009, peg. 2). They refer to their employees as “colleagues” which shows their respect for the people who work for them. Although they are doing a lot of great things, there is always more that can be done. Recommendations to be more sustainable: Environmental: The park could build an education centre to teach customers about the local environment and the importance of preserving it. A section of the park could be turned into a protected area for local flora and fauna. Visitors could be encouraged not to drive to Wild Wad.
Free shuttles could be provided from nearby metro stations. Shuttles could also be provided on a twice a day basis on weekends and during busy holidays from nearby cities to encourage people not to drive. Dublin is very hot so most people tend to drive every”here and will need incentive not to. Wild Wad could create additional conservation funds to protect the local environment. The park could use ore natural and environmentally friendly products, Examples include: natural cleaning products, providing pure soap for its shower facilities, and buy organic/natural produce for their restaurants.
Restaurants at Wild Wad could compost food scraps, which could be used as compost for local farms. Most days of the year in LAKE are sunny. Wild Wad could take advantage of this weather by installing solar panels that could be used to make the theme park more energy efficient. Economic: Jobs could be developed to encourage growth and development among locals. They could open a store to promote local handicrafts. They could have one day a month that has half priced entry fees so people who may not be able to normal afford going to the park could attend. Wild Wad could offer incentives to families with numerous children.
For example: only charge full entry price for the first 2 children then offer half price entry for any other children. Social/cultural: Offer handbooks to tourists about the local culture. The local Emirate culture is an Islamic culture and many people forget that. It would be good to educate visitors about Islamic culture and things that could be potentially offensive to the locals. In particular taking photographs of Muslim women without their consent is very offensive. Encourage guests to cover up buy offering alternative swimwear. Islamic culture is a modest one and men and woman are not supposed to expose their bodies in public.
Many people going to these water parks dress in very revealing swimwear and do not take into consideration that this could be very offensive to the Muslim culture. Offering alternative swimwear like burnings or more modest swimwear choices for guests to rent or buy could help with this problem. Add in a woman and children’s only section in line with local customs. Conclusion: Wild Wad is a great example of a Theme Park that has been leading the way as a sustainable and socially responsible water park not only in the Middle East, but around the world.
