Yas, please! A new ‘wall-less’ way of vacation on UAE’s Yas Island

On an island in Abu Dhabi that boasts seven hotels, hundreds of restaurants, a beach, a water park, a golf course, a Formula 1 racetrack and the world’s largest indoor theme park, the locals have their own credo: “The Yas way.”

It means, in short, that visitors to Yas Island may want to “have it all,” sampling every attraction on the 9-square-mile island – a moveable feast of fun.

Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi stands with his arms behind his back.
Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi

A new technology, Yas ID, is helping guide those guests through their island journeys, bridging the gap between the physical and the digital realms, says Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi, CEO of Miral Asset Management, the developer behind Yas Island’s leisure attractions.

“This project is part of delivering on our promise of developing Yas Island into a wall-less resort where the fun begins before you arrive and continues after you leave,” Al Zaabi says.

Yas ID, built on Microsoft Azure, is a “unique identifier,” offering a single login for use across all points of guest interaction, the developer says.

Guests can register for Yas ID through a mobile app, accessing free Wi-Fi service throughout the property.

Yas Island welcomed 27 million visits in 2017 on the shores of the Persian Gulf in the United Arab Emirates. With this and other tech advances, Miral plans to expand that number to 48 million visits by 2022.