Abu Dhabi – The Top 10 Cities To Travel in 2010

December 9, 2009 By William King

Abu Dhabi

Sadiyaat Island

For a time period of the decade or so, Dubai continuously overshadowed its neighboring estates by attracting the largest amount of tourists and visitors from all over the world. It seem to be like the magnetism and charisma area that the majority of visitors that visit UAE didn’t even know the names of other estates, let alone visiting them. Slowly but surely other estates are catching up gradually, and not surprisingly Abu Dhabi is the first one to get there. Recently, the well-known travel info portal Lonely Planet has compiled a record of top ten cities to travel in 2010 and Abu Dhabi’s name is included in the record. What’s the special attributes that makes Abu Dhabi include in the record with other well known cities like Kyoto, Lecce, Charleston, Vancouver or Singapore? Let’s take a look.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of UAE

Al Sowwah Island
Abu Dhabi is the capital of United Arab Emirates (and most of you may thought it was Dubai … Eh?) With all of its oil reserves along with a visionary ruler like Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi is rapidly developing a world class infrastructure to lure in tourists.

The emirate is now having a lot of huge developments under construction. Among them are Sadiyaat Island, Al Sowwah Island, Yas Island, museums, highways, parks, hotels, zoos, and also shopping malls. Following with the footsteps of Dubai (although experiencing from its mistakes), Abu Dhabi has utilized a more careful approach. Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (established in 2004) has set their goal to attract over 3 million visitors annually by 2015. The objective doesn’t seem far fetched, given the type of finances they have obtained.

abu dhabi grand prix

Abu Dhabi has got plenty to offer to the tourists arriving at this vibrant city, which range from first rate golf courses to skiing facility, from scuba diving to ice skating. Besides, Abu Dhabi is well-known for its cultural activities; you’ll discover all sorts of events including art exhibitions, conventional music and folk dances. Emirates Palace, Beach Rotana Hotel and Hilton Baynunah are among the most well-known hotels in Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi has just hosted Formula One Grand Prix, and also the 5.5 km long track is set to host for even more events. ADTA is preparing to build as much as 17,000 new hotel rooms prior to the end of 2015.

Noteworthy Projects in Abu Dhabi

Other noteworthy projects consist of the expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport (which is currently the second busiest airport of UAE), Khalifa City, Mussafah, Corniche and Town Centre. At the moment, vacationers may or may not agree with the Lonely Planet ratings by include Abu Dhabi as one of the top 10 cities to travel in 2010, but if every thing goes according to the plan, Abu Dhabi is going to be one of the world’s top tourist locations by 2015.

Filed Under: Abu Dhabi Tagged With: Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Beach Rotana Hotel, Capital Of United Arab Emirates, Emirates Palace, Hilton Baynunah, Khalifa Bin Zayed

Saadiyat Island promises to boost tourism in Abu Dhabi

October 5, 2009 By William King

Recently, Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi became the center of attention for that vacationers, when it was awarded the Top tourist spot in Middle East, by World Travel Awards, rising above some of the larger names in this region such as Palm Jumeirah of Dubai, The Pearl in Qatar, Blue City in Oman, Al Reem Islands in Abu Dhabi and numerous a lot more.

Saadiyat Isle (literal meanings with the name are ‘Island of Happiness’) is one of individuals uncommon huge improvement projects in UAE where the construction work is still in progress, despite present financial crunch. Tourism Improvement and Expense Company (TDIC) may be the name behind this mega task, teaming up with some world-class architects, designers and engineers like Gary Player, Robert Trent Jones II, Stregis, Zaha, Troon Golf, Gaggenheim and Buro Happold.

Saadiyat Beach:

Saadiyat Island includes a shoreline that stretches on to 9 kilometers, which can be projected to host 9 5 star hotels, Golf Club, and a residential project named Saadiyat Seaside Residences. Needless to say, that residents and vacationers will be capable to find luxuries like swimming pools, parks, supermarkets, restaurants, sport complex and schools. Great thing is, that the developers have not sidelined the natural beauty altogether. Hawksbill Turtle is the specialty of this beach, which is going to be protected by getting strict environmental measures.

Saadiyat Cultural District:

This most likely is going to be one of the most sought-after region of Saadiyat Island among vacationers, since it contains Sheikh Zayed national museum, Louvre (a universal museum), a fascinating performing arts centre and Guggenheim (another museum and type of an art gallery). Apart from being masterfully created structures, all of these museums and arts centers will be providing a wealth of educational, cultural and arts related info towards the vacationers.

Saadiyat Promenade & Saadiyat Retreat:

Saadiyat Promenade will be a vibrant place with an air of festivity, individuals and families can spend their holidays and leisure time in the restaurants, cafes and other recreational facilities at Saadiyat Promenade. Saadiyat Retreat is quite the opposite; it promises to become a peaceful place that makes it possible for you to move away from extremely droning routine life.

Saadiyat Lagoons & Saadiyat Marina:

An additional residential region, Saadiyat Lagoon offers a contemporary lifestyle in the close vicinity of nature, as these lagoons are located right at the shores of Arabian Gulf (AKA Persian Gulf). Similarly, Saadiyat Marina offers numerous residential and commercial facilities like Prime Residential, Retail, community spaces and Maritime museum.

Filed Under: Abu Dhabi Tagged With: Buro Happold, palm jumeirah, Robert Trent Jones, Saadiyat Island, tourism in Abu Dhabi, Troon Golf

Skyscrapers – History and future

June 24, 2009 By William King

Architecture is the alphabet of giants; it is the largest set of symbols ever made to meet the eyes of men. A tower stands up like a sort of simplified statue, of much more than heroic size. (Gilbert Keith Chesterton)

Man has always been daunted by exceptionally tall buildings (or structures), that’s the reason that more or less, all Seven Wonders of the World are essentially man-made structures and each of them has to do something with structural significance. Gigantic structures known as skyscraper are looked upon as a symbol of power, prosperity and pride for the city or the emperor. From the first skyscraper (Home Insurance Building, Chicago) to the latest jaw-dropingly tall Burj-Dubai, these building have continued to amaze the spectators and inspire other architects to dream of coming up with an even taller structure. The race continues, and we can’t really predict on how tall will be the ultimate skyscraper.

History:
We don’t know much about the very first construction in the human history or first man-made building for that matter, but we can safely assume (going by the human nature) that from the very first construction, man had this desire to build and posses the biggest or the tallest one. Apart from being a status emblem, skyscrapers also comes handy in the urban cities where land is scarce and the demand of residential and commercial building is high. Even though we find many examples of tall or exceptionally large buildings from the ancient times, it was actually the scarcity of land that prompted the construction of these concrete giants. The construction of skyscrapers kicked in from the Chicago city back in late nineties and the trend was followed by almost all major cities in the world.

Present & Future:
Now days, skyscrapers are looked upon as an average building in well developed cities unless they are exceptionally high or brilliantly designed. Hong Kong is said to have the most skyscrapers in the world, other cities with a considerable number of tall buildings include New York, Tokyo, Chicago, Sao Paulo (Brazil), Manhattan, Shanghai, Toronto, etc. The major break through in skyscraper history came when the old model, which was supported by steel frame, was replaced by frame-tube structure (and many other models) by Fazlur Khan, probably the most influential architect in the history of skyscrapers. Some of the worth mentioning skyscrapers of present and future are Burj Dubai, Sears Tower, Taipei 101, Empire State Building, Shanghai World Financial Center, Jin Mao Tower and Bank of China tower.

Filed Under: Dubai Towers Tagged With: burj dubai, Chicago City, dubai skyscrapers, Dubai Skyscrapers History, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Seven Wonders of the World

Role of Recently Initiated Dubai Real Estate Court

June 15, 2009 By William King

At last some relief for investors, as Dubai Real Estate court (AKA Dubai property court) in its first and extensively publicized ruling has ruled in favor of the investor, asking the developer (Mizin) to reimburse the payments made to them by the plaintiff. Prior to this decision, many investors were stuck after they’ve decided to invest in some off-plan properties, where the construction works never begun or were brought to a standstill in preliminary stage.

At a time, when the investors were getting alarmed to a greater extent after listening to similar stories coming from everywhere, it was very important for regulatory bodies to restore investor’s trust and tone down the “scam developer’s mafia”. Bear in mind that RERA is also going to introduce a new rating system for developers, these ratings will be based on their projects, financial stability and presence in the market.

Dubai property court has been looked upon as a ray of light by investors; remember Mizin is a subsidiary group of Tatweer that happens to be one of the biggies in Dubai real estate market. If Dubai Real Estate court can continue to serve justice in the same manner (with a little more speediness though), it’ll give a huge boost to investor’s trust.

Role of Real Estate Court:
Despite the continuous words of warnings issued by RERA Dubai for investors to be on your guard when dealing with developers or brokers who are not licensed by RERA Dubai, or when there’s no Real Estate Trust Account involved, many investors still fell in the trap. Sometimes, because they were too impatient to check into these details and sometimes because these forewarnings never reached them, as a result more and more disgruntled investors were creating a negative buzz about Dubai real estate market.

In its early days, role of Dubai Property Court will most probably be limited to dealing with these displeased investors and developers, as both parties find themselves in hot waters because of ongoing financial crisis. Developers are struck by the lack of finances to carry out constructions, while investors are getting panicked even if there’s a little postponement in the completion date of the project. Also, among these genuinely victimized investors, there are speculators who do not want to make further payments because the prices are not rising to their liking. Therefore, the court has to walk on a fine line, as both developers and investors are equally important for a vibrant real estate market and upsetting any one of them can prove to be counter productive for Dubai market.

Filed Under: Dubai Investment Tagged With: Dubai Real Estate Court, Dubai RERA, RERA Dubai