Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Dubai Mall - Grand Opening, November 4th 2008

Dubai Mall is the largest mall ever built to date, spanning well over 5.9 million sq ft on a 12 million sq ft land. Twice delayed since 2006, it finally opened on November 4th, 2008 with 600 retailers and a 1,200 shops capacity.

A lot of hype has revolved around the Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Centre as well as the Dubai Ice Rink.

Some economists have questioned whether they can meet the original target of 30 million visitors amidst global economic gloom. However, seeing that the Dubai real estate prices have gone up instead of following the global downward trend suggests to me that their economy is strong and is capable of weathering the financial storm.

There has always been the debate whether Debai will be just an oasis in the sand considering that their GDP is much lower than their outstanding debts. Do they run the risk of going bankrupt? I certainly think so. Yet they have always been ahead of the crowd in being the best and the newest attraction putting the focus on their tourism industry. You have to admit that they are so smart, they will probably find a way to survive.

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