Abu Dhabi: A lavish welcome By Jennifer Chen, TODAY | Posted: 06 November 2008 1149 hrs
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ABU DHABI: The tourism officials say that there is no competition, that there is no one-upmanship when it comes to producing recordsetting, unprecedented tourist attractions in the emirate. Yet, it’s hard not to compare the grand dreams of Abu Dhabi to those of Dubai, its neighbour to the north-west in the United Arab Emirates.
To the right patch of the map, travellers can expect to see the tallest building in the world — the still to be completed Burj Dubai — gargantuan man-made islands The World and The Palm, and the Atlantis themed water park, which opened in August.
To the left, in Abu Dhabi, there is the opulent, one-year-old Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque, which, with a capability to hold 40,000 worshippers, is only the third largest in the world. But, wait. When the emirate’s Ferrari theme park is ready next year, it will be a world first, as will be the opening of the Louvre Museum — the first outside of Paris — in 2012.
Abu Dhabi’s tourism representative, however, said these draws are not meant to rival those of Dubai.
"We are not competing with each other," said Ibrahim Jasem Mohamed Makki at the ITB travel trade show in Singapore two weeks ago. "At the end of the day, there is synergy. Dubai has its own vision, we have ours. We complement each other."
As tourist destinations go, Abu Dhabi is a relative newcomer. Now, the world’s richest city — its citizens have an average net worth of US$17 million ($25 million) — aims to triple visitor numbers to three million by 2012.
To differentiate itself from its gleaming neighbour, Abu Dhabi intends to become a cultural preserve. “It is the Beijing to Dubai’s Shanghai,” said a tourism representative. The emirate has hired key names in architecture for its numerous cultural projects — Frank Gehry for the Guggenheim Museum, Zaha Hadid for an arts centre and Sir Norman Foster for a national museum.
Budget-wise “the sky is the limit” — global economic crisis or no — said Yasser Mohammed Zamzam of Aldar, the emirate's biggest property developer. But the curious will have to wait for Abu Dhabi to officially announce what this money will produce.
Yasser was mum. Asked how the emirate’s first Formula One race next year will be different from Singapore’s Grand Prix, he said: “We are a nation that doesn’t talk. No hints. You’ll see on Nov 15, 2009. Our standards are very high. And why not, the sky is the limit for us. Nov 15, you’ll see the difference (between the races).”
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