Dubai Festival City, the Middle East’s largest mixed-use real estate project, which spans 1,600 acres along the historic Creek in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), is to make its Middle East exhibition debut at Arabian Travel Market in May 2003.
The signature ‘city-within-a-city’ destination will be showcased on a 50 square meter stand at Arabian Travel Market (ATM), the region's travel and tourism show, which takes place at the Airport Expo Dubai. The shopping, leisure and sports offerings of Dubai Festival City will be a prime focus of its ATM stand.
"Dubai is the shopping hub of the Arabian Gulf and the region's leading leisure destination," said Lee Tabler, Dubai Festival City LLC chief executive officer. "The emirate is targeting tourist arrivals of 10 million by 2010 and we see these visitors as a key target for us. Tourists will converge on Dubai Festival City as it will be a center-place destination, much as Covent Garden is to London, or St. Mark's Square is to Venice.”
High on Dubai Festival City's ATM promotional agenda will be its championship 18-hole golf course, which is currently taking shape on the waterfront site. The course, designed by golf course designer Robert Trent Jones II LLC, is due for completion by the end of this year and should be playable early next year. It will be the emirate's sixth all-grass 18-hole course.
"This course, which is differentiated by its oasis-style theme set in the heart of the city, will further enhance Dubai's growing reputation as an international golfing destination," said Tabler. Other world-class sports offerings are to be included into the Dubai Festival City masterplan, which spans 15 communities and includes over a quarter of a million square meters of central retail space, edutainment facilities, a marina, canal and hotels.
"Quite simply there is nothing like it within the region for scale or scope," said Tabler. "To put it into perspective, when complete, around 75,000 people will live, work and play in Dubai Festival City. It will be the regional family entertainment center, a preferred shopping location where people can relax in a wide range of food and beverage options. The hotels will provide an automatic customer feed to all the entertainment, retail and sports facilities."
Dubai Festival City is a property development by the Al-Futtaim Group. The privately-funded property will comprise a mix of entertainment, dining, shopping, edutainment, sport and leisure facilities, automotive dealerships, hotels, a marina, residential and office components. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
