Salford VR specialist signs deal with Saudi operator

Immotion, the Salford-based virtual reality specialist, has signed a partnership deal with Saudi Arabian hospitality and entertainment operator, Al Hokair.

The agreement was sealed at the recent IAAPA Amusement Expo in Orlando, in America.

Their partnership will see the establishment of four VR centres across Saudi and the United Arab Emirates, said Al Hokair executive vice president and general manager of the group’s entertainment sector, Mishal Al Hokair.

He said they hope to expand to more locations in the near future.

Each site will offer a minimum of 12 machines, which should be open for business by the beginning of 2019.

Mr Hokair said: “There’s not very much VR in Saudi at the moment, so this will make a big impact.

“The quality of the experience brought by the Immotion Group is just amazing. I’ve tried the different variants at some of their locations in the UK and they’re incredible.

“There are other companies that have impressive VR offerings, but for me, none of them touch Immotion’s.

“The most important thing is the content and they have a good team that provide this. The fact that they are already supplying premium locations like Legoland, for example, has given us the confidence to progress with this deal.”

In July this year Immotion announced a partnership with Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester owner Merlin Entertainments.

Rod Findley, Immotion group commercial director, said: “Quality content is what’s different about us, we’re going in at a very high level; we create all our own content within our studios in Manchester and Los Angeles. So the level of it and experience it provides is head and shoulders above anything else that exists.”

He added: “It’s something that always concerns us; if people have a bad experience of VR then they don’t want to come back, so that’s why it’s important that in our deal with Al Hokair, we put the right VR in place.

“Guests to their existing centres will spend longer in there and it will also serve to attract additional custom.”

Earlier this month Immotion announced it is putting its new racing simulator in Rank’s Grosvenor casino in Manchester, before rolling out to some of the 53 other UK sites.