Dubai is soon becoming the global hub. It’s buzzing, bubbling and booming left, right and centre. It recapitulates every arena be it shopping; sightseeing, business, hospitality, everything that exists under the sun exists in Dubai. Talking of hospitality, there is one project in the pipeline that will re-define hospitality. The word is ‘Bawadi’. The $29 billion ‘Bawadi’ hospitality and tourism development project has been unveiled signalling the launch of Dubai’s next major phase in tourism development. Located in the two billion square foot, $5.6 billion mixed-use theme park Dubailand, the ground-breaking project will boast the world’s largest hotel as well as the greatest concentration of leading hotels anywhere in the world. It will add 31 hotels to the emirate’s fast-expanding portfolio of already iconic properties over the next eight years.
The total capacity will be 29,200 rooms of which about a quarter will be five stars, some two thirds will be four-star, and the remaining rooms will be three-star. 12,450 rooms will be in the developer’s own 12 themed hotels. A further 19 hotels – providing 16,750 rooms – will be developed by external investors.
The project will also become one of the world’s most exciting entertainment and leisure hubs through entertainment centres, shopping malls, theatres, leading hotel brands, restaurants and convention centres. ‘Bawadi’ will be 10 kilometres long and is expected to host 3.3 million guests by 2016 which in turn represents more than 21 per cent of the total number of tourists that Dubai anticipates by that time. It is a project developed and managed by Tatweer (part of Dubai Holding). Not only will this make the occupancy go further higher, but it has also boomed the hospitality industry too. It’s just a matter of killing time, for Dubai is all set to dazzle.
