Atlantis, The Palm: During Financial and Ecnomic Crisis, Life Is Sweet for Dubai's Atlantis Hotel

The Atlantis, The Palm Hotel in Dubai is a $1.5 billion hotel set to open.


Financial crisis, global economic recession?

No evidence of that at Dubai's new and uber extravagant "Atlantis, The Palm" hotel. At a cost of just under $1.5 Billion US, the hotel has

1539-rooms, the largest water park in the Middle East and a massive aquarium housing 65,000 fish, with enough space for a massive whale shark, swimming in 11 million litres of water.

The hotel will soon have its grand opening and in attendance are 1,000 odd celebrities and dignitaries from around the world including Oprah Winfrey, actors Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington, and former basketball star Michael Jordan. It will include a red carpet walk and a fire works spectacular seven times larger than the display at the Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony.

More from AFP:

The project was conceived at a time before the global economic crisis began biting the Gulf emirate.
But Kerzner says he is optimistic about the future, adding that he designed the hotel "for the medium to longer term."

The hotel opened unofficially on September 24 and has had an occupancy rate of 80 percent, Kerzner said. "We don't know how long it's going to take for the economy around the world to take off again," he added.

The finacial meltdown has affected Dubai and other Gulf emirates.
The local stock market has crashed, losing two thirds of its value since the beginning of the year, and Dubai's real estate sector, a major driving force of domestic economy, has begun to stutter.