Khaleej Times

Thousands of energy-efficient decorative lights have started shining along the three-km long Emaar Boulevard, Downtown Dubai, which will continue through the entire festival season, including the UAE National Day celebrations, Emirates Classic Car Festival, New Year’s Eve and the Dubai Shopping Festival, up until April 2012.

Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing has commissioned an art installation depicting Dubai’s famous skyline and iconic buildings made entirely out of food.

Dubai’s hospitality market has rapidly absorbed this influx of new supply and continued to perform exceptionally well, as RevPAR has only declined by 0.3 per cent, according to Ernst & Young’s Middle East Hotel Benchmark survey.

Close behind the Burj Khalifa will be many other local and global landmarks, including the three tallest towers in the world after Burj Khalifa: CN Tower, Taipei 101 and Willis Tower would all stand in the dark from 8.30pm to 9.30pm on March 27. The only structure from the top five yet to confirm their participation is Malaysia’s twin wonder Petronas Towers.

The world’s tallest hotel, JW Marriott Marquis, is expected to open its doors to guests in December this year. Dubai is home to the world’s top three tallest structures — the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa; the world’s tallest residential building, Princes Tower; and, soon, the world’s tallest hotel, JW Marriott Marquis.

Come Saturday (March 26) evening and every corner of the UAE including the glittering Burj Khalifa, which has peak electricity demand to light up about 500,000 bulbs of 100w each, will be shrouded in darkness except for a few essential lights as part of Earth Hour and the city’s bid against climate change.

Dubai’s buoyant hotel industry sustained its upturn in the first six months of 2012 with a 10 per cent surge in hotel guests compared to the corresponding period in 2011. Dubai’s hotels and hotel apartments played hosts to 5,027,223 guests in the first half of this year, the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in Dubai has said.

The 2014 Fifa World Cup was showcased on the 123rd floor of the world’s tallest building – the Burj Khalifa – when official partner Visa, put on show the symbol of world soccer supremacy during a special presentation. The initiative to showcase soccer’s biggest prize is one of several events being hosted by Visa to promote the sport within the GCC.

Visitors to the observatory deck, located on Level 124 of Emaar Properties’ global icon Burj Khalifa, increased 13 per cent in 2013, up from 1.66 million visitors the previous year.

Emaar Hospitality Group, the hospitality and leisure subsidiary of global property developer Emaar Properties, has acquired the management of Al Manzil and Qamardeen hotels, two key hospitality assets of Emaar, located in Downtown Dubai. The two hotels were earlier managed by Southern Sun Hotel Group.