WORLD> Africa
Dubai parties despite economic gloom
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-21 10:02

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – While the rest of the world was tightening its belt, Dubai threw a $20 million party Thursday complete with Hollywood celebrities like Robert DeNiro and a fireworks show that organizers said was visible from outer space.


US actress Lindsay Lohan arrives on the red carpet of the Atlantis resort for the opening of the Palm Hotel, in Dubai, Thursday, November 20, 2008. [Agencies] 
The party, which was headlined by Australian pop star Kylie Minogue in her Middle East debut, was to celebrate a new $1.5 billion marine-themed resort built off the Gulf coast on an artificial island in the shape of a palm tree.

Minogue reportedly earned $4 million for her performance in front of stars like Charlize Theron and Lindsay Lohan.

Does this all seem a bit much at a time when much of the world is reeling from the global financial crisis?

Not really, according to Sol Kerzner, the chairman of Kerzner International, which owns the Atlantis hotel.

"When you consider $20 million, it's a lot of money (until) you consider it up against establishing a $1.5 billion resort," Kerzner told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Kerzner International split the $20 million bill with state-owned Nakheel, which built Palm island where Atlantis is located.

Kerzner acknowledged that the party was planned long before the global economy slipped into a tailspin.

"If I had it all over again and I understood that the timing was what it was, one might modify a couple of the things ... but not significantly," said Kerzner, who announced sweeping layoffs last week at the original Atlantis in the Bahamas.

Kerzner said new projects are being put on hold at his company as costs are being scaled back -- a response to cash-strapped tourists rethinking their holiday plans.

Just days before Thursday's party, Nakheel announced it was re-examining staffing needs and the pace of construction of its other man-made islands in light of the worldwide economic slowdown.

The Atlantis resort opened for tourists in September. The hotel's top floor aims squarely at the ultra-wealthy. A three-bedroom, three-bathroom suite complete with a gold-leaf, 18-seat dining table is on offer for $25,000 a night.

The rest of the 113-acre resort is dedicated to family entertainment with a giant, open-air tank with 65,000 fish, stingrays and other sea creatures, including a rare whale-shark captured by the hotel in the Gulf and considered a hostage by environmental activists.

There's also a dolphinarium with more than two dozen bottlenose dolphins flown in from the Solomon Islands last year amid protests from animal rights organizations.

Thursday's lavish party is only one of Dubai's many attempts to remain in the spotlight -- part of the city-state's meteoric rise from little more than a patch of sand to the business and entertainment capital of the Middle East in about a decade.

Britain's most famous cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, will sailing in next week and will be converted into a floating hotel off Palm island.