AFP/Dubai
Dubai announced yesterday it would build the world’s largest indoor ski resort, with a 1.2km run.
Dubai’s current indoor ski resort, opened in 2005 in the Mall of the Emirates, remains the largest in the world, according to the Guinness World Records website, boasting a 400m slope.
The slope runs year-round, despite summer temperatures in Dubai that can top 45 degrees Celsius.
The new covered ski resort comes as part of a scheme dubbed Meydan One, also to include the world’s tallest residential tower at 711m, a dancing fountain sweeping up to 420m, a vast shopping centre, a 350-room hotel and a marina, according to a government statement.
Estimated to cost of up to AED25bn, the project is to extend from the Meydan race track in the emirate’s desert to Burj Khalifa, the world’s highest tower, reported Dubai daily Al Bayan.
“In a city which never stops innovating, today’s announcement is significant for the future of Dubai and the UAE,” Meydan chairman Saeed al-Tayer was quoted as saying in UAE-based newspaper The National.
The first phase of the project, eventually to house up to 78,000 residents, should be completed in the next five years, in time for the UAE’s hosting of World Expo 2020, according to its promoters.
Dubai, which has emerged as a tourist destination, logged 13.2mn visitors last year and aims for 20mn tourists by 2020.
