Jaw wide open and mind boggled in Abu Dhabi

By Yeoh Siew hoon

Last year, at the Arabian Travel Market, I went gawking at the Dubai stand with its large scale models promising heaven on earth – the Bawadi strip with its 30,000 rooms and the DubaiLand theme park promising Universal Studios and a snow-covered area.

This year, the most often-heard comment was “have you seen the Abu Dhabi stand’? So of course I had to go see.

First things first, I think organisers Reed Travel Exhibitions must be laughing all the way to the bank. These scale models they build here are seriously huge – and take up a lot of space, 1,321sqm to be exact was the size of the Abu Dhabi stand.

You can see the entire new city laid out in front of your eyes. There’s the Saadiyat “Culture Island” development which will house the Louvre Abu Dhabi, New York’s Guggenheim Museum and the Performing Arts Centre, which will transform the Abu Dhabi skyline

The Louvre Abu Dhabi, a 24,000 sqm branch of the famous Parisian museum, will be housed in a futuristic building, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, who also designed the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. The museum will cost €83 million to build, and is slated for completion by 2012.

For a €700 million license fee – €400 million of which are for the rights to the “Louvre” brand – France will make expertise and art works available from its most prestigious museum.

When the agreement was signed, some in the art world decried the commercialisation. A petition against the deal, signed by 4,650 museum experts, archaeologists and art historians, insisted that “museums are not for sale.”

But there it was, the futuristic-looking building looking very much at home in the desert.

Next to it is the bird-like Guggenheim designed by Frank Gehry. The Performance Arts Centre looks like an alien spacecraft come home to roost.

The other half of the stand was taken by the US$3 billion Desert Islands project, unveiled at ATM. This development consists of eight islands and an onshore gateway to a range of conservation-based attractions, including the Arabian National Park.

The project comprises Sir Bani Yas Island, Dalma Island and the Discovery Islands – six offshore outcrops – and the group will be connected by ferry and hydrofoil services, water taxis and private “resort” boats.

There will be a wildlife sanctuary, a bird sanctuary, walking trails, mangrove walks, spas and resorts. The target is to achieve 250,000 visitors a year when the first phase is completed in 2010, rising to one million a year by 2017.

Development is also taking place in the city of Abu Dhabi. The new Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Centre (ADNEC) has opened. Hotels are planting their flags.

Shangri-La Hotel Qaryat Al Beri, part of a mixed use development, will open this August. Set on a 8.5ha area, the hotel will have 214 rooms, all sea facing, as well as seven beachfront villas.

Then there’s the Abu Dhabi Lagoon Club which will have a 380-room hotel managed by Conrad, 80 apartments, 3,500sqm of retail space, a convention centre and a health club and spa.

A five star retreat, Qasr Al Sarab, is being built in the emirate’s Liwa desert, which is being positioned as a signature destination.

Observers say that Abu Dhabi is playing it smart – going for high-end cultural and eco-tourism – instead of competing with Dubai. The idea is for the two to complement each other.

Abu Dhabi’s goal: To achieve three million tourists by 2015.

I left the stand, jaw wide open.

Catch up with Yeoh Siew Hoon at The Transit Cafe – www.thetransitcafe.com