QE2 to become luxury floating hotel
Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2, bought by the Government of Dubai five years ago, is coming out of mothballs and will be transformed into a floating, 300-bedroom luxury hotel.
She will be the centerpiece of a maritime heritage centre located at a new cruise terminal at Port Rashid.
Initially the QE2 was to have been refurbished and moored on Palm Jumeirah, but that plan became a victim of Dubai’s economic downturn.
“There have been many great ideas about what to do with this ship, but people like the ship for what she is; her style and her history,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the chairman of DP World and the head of its investment arm, Istithmar, which paid US$100 million for the ship in 2007.
“So we have decided to leave her basic design as it is. We will preserve her tradition. What we are doing today is what we should have done when we first bought her.”
Three hotel groups, including Jumeirah, have shown interest in operating the QE2 as a luxury hotel.
by Ian Jarrett
Ian Jarrett
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