Atlantis Resort Opening Ceremony
Okay, You don't have to tell me. I know that this post has nothing to do with Qatar but i hope you might appreciate this! ;o)
Here's my story: Just came home, sprawled on the sofa, turned on the television and started to browse TV channels. And the next thing i know, I'm watching the opening ceremony of the much anticipated Atlantis Resort. The spectacle was awesome! It is one of the best fireworks display I've ever seen! Exaggerating? No, its a fact. Okay, I'll cut the chase, here's the news!
BBC Thursday, 20 November 2008
Fiery spectacle opens Dubai hotel
Dubai has thrown a spectacular light show to celebrate a new $1.5bn marine-themed resort built off the Gulf coast on an artificial island in the shape of a palm tree.
Organizers claimed that the fireworks display for the $20m party could be seen from space.
Want to catch a glimpse? Here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7740887.stm
it was spectacular yes....and there was even a report that it was the first fireworks display to be seen in outer space ... but.... in this time of world crisis it was the most shameless display of extravagance I have ever seen...
Times (UK)
Crisis? What crisis? Dubai's Atlantis hotel opens with £13m party
There was no evidence of the global financial crisis as tycoons and celebrities streamed into Dubai last night for the world’s most expensive private party.
Having spent £1 billion, the owners of the Atlantis hotel, which they hope will become the new symbol of excess in a region already replete with towering statements of wealth, splashed out £13.5 million on its opening.
In the lobby of the Atlantis about 2,000 guests sipped Dom Pérignon. Outside, A-list celebrities from Robert De Niro to Lindsay Lohan walked the red carpet. After the pop singer Kylie Minogue performed on stage the sky lit up with the world’s largest fireworks display, seven times greater than this year’s Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing and extravagant enough to be seen from outer space.
The price tag for the party even embarrassed Sol Kerzner, the chairman and chief executive officer of Kerzner International, who built the resort on the man-made Palm Island in partnership with Nakheel, a state-owned developer. “If I had to do it all over again, I might do it recognising the fact that we’re living through a bit of a tough economic environment,” Mr Kerzner, a South African billionaire, told The Times.
The timing for Mr Kerzner’s imposing hotel is not ideal. The emirate is groaning under heavy debt and banks have tightened lending, delaying new developments. Gulf stock markets have sunk to historic lows and analysts are radically scaling back economic forecasts for the region.
Since it opened its doors to paying guests six weeks ago, the hotel has been nearly 80 per cent full, Mr Kerzner said. Nightly rates range in price from $800 (£550) for a basic suite to $35,000 per night for the hotel’s signature suite, which features floor to ceiling views of Dubai. The 1,539-room hotel has two towers set in 130-acre grounds that feature an aquarium with 65,000 sea creatures.
High life
$35,000: cost of one night in the Bridge Suite
58,000 km of steel bars were used in the hotel’s construction, more than nine times the length of the Great Wall of China
46 hectares: the size of the Atlantis resort, equal to 64 Wembley pitches