Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah will welcome its first hotel resort this September, when the 1,500-room Atlantis resort and conference centre opens its doors.
Atlantis, The Palm is located at the centre of the Palm’s crescent, and will be the first of 30-odd hotels to open across the project over the next few years. The resort will include Aquaventure, the largest waterpark in the Arabian Peninsula, with 170,000 sqm of beachfront, a marine lagoon, 18 million litres of freshwater powering seven waterslides, and a dolphin education and conservation centre. Entrance to Aquaventure will be free to hotel guests, or US$60 for visitors.
Business travellers will be catered for by a 5,600 sqm conference centre, complete with a 2,100sqm Atlantis Ballroom, capable of accommodating up to 2,500 delgates, and offering wifi internet access. There will also be a 1,000 sqm pre-function area with floor-to-ceiling beach views, while the Silk and Spice Ballrooms, each over 500 sqm in size, can be divided into two or three separate rooms.
The outdoor Palm Grove can also be hired, as can the the Aquaventure beach for “traditional Arabian barbeques”, and there will be a total of 16 restaurants throughout the complex, including the Dubai branch of the famous Nobu brand.
As you can see from the image above (taken during Business Traveller's recent visit to The Palm), the hotel is nearing completion, and the monorail which will transport people along the spine of the Palm is due to open at the same time as the hotel. The resort’s 28 dolphins are currently undergoing familiarisation sessions with staff, and a spokesperson said that delegates would be able to arrange group team-building activities within the conservation centre.
The Atlantis project is being developed by Kerzner International Ltd, a resort operator in which Dubai-based developer Nakheel (see online news May 8) owns a 51 per cent stake.
For more information visit atlantisthepalm.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
