From the barren sands will soon rise an oasis development envisioned to be the centre of tourism in the UAE and the region. The ambitious leisure & hospitality project ever, and perhaps the world’s first is called Bawadi, or “deserts” in Arabic. It will be built over 139-million sq ft area at Dubailand.
The AED200-billion resort was envisioned and launched by HH Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Maktoum, and under the helm of the state-owned Dubai Company Tatweer.
Bawadi will feature a cluster of 51 hotels with 60,000 rooms, theaters, convention centres, and shopping malls. It will boast of a capacity of 29,200 rooms, out of which 12,450 will be developed by the Tatweer's 12 themed hotels, with another 16,750 rooms developed by independent investors in another 19 hotels.
Completion of the Bawadi will be three-phased. The first phase, due for completion in 2010, focuses on infrastructure and building hotels. The remaining phases will be investor projects and are scheduled for completion in 2016. In the master plan of Bawadi are American Hotels & Resorts, Holly Bolly Hotel & Resort, Ottoman Palace Hotel & Resort, Pirates Cove Hotel & Resorts, and the world’s largest hotel Asia-Asia, the centerpiece of the project.
Most of its projects will be in the shape of the famous iconic structures around the world. Shaped like the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, Asia-Asia will have 6,500 rooms, combining over 5, 000 four-star and an additional 1,400 five-star rooms.
Bawadi will promote tourism-dependent industries such as meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions as well as the corporate travel business. The hotels are expected to host 3.3 million guests by 2016, or 21 per cent more than what Dubai expects to host by that year.
