Earlier this week, the Dubai Mall opened its doors to the public, bringing a wholenew attraction to the visitors of the United Arab Emirates.

The mall was described as

‘one of the world’s largest lifestyle, entertainment and shopping destinations’

According to the Tourism and Commerce Marketing Department for Dubai the major attractions at the shopping centre are over 600 retail outlets, an indoor theme park, a 22 screen cinema and an ice rink of Olympic proportions.

Another great attraction for tourists is the Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Centre with its 270 degree walk through tunnel.

The mall’s general manager, Yousif Al Ali, said: ‘The Dubai Mall is a one-of-its-kind experience in the region and marks the future of retail in the region by reinventing the shopping experience for the whole family. Dubai has already established its place in the world as one of the best business and tourism destinations and the Dubai Mall, as an ambassador for Dubai, will highlight to the world the capabilities and strengths of this city.’

The Dubai Mall has long been anticipated and forms just a small part of the Downtown Burj Dubai development project, which is soon to boast the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building as its centrepiece.

The tourism authority for Dubai has made a recent announcement stating that the forthcoming range of attractions and developments opening in the next couple of years will allow the city to achieve its goal of 15 million tourists per year by 2015.

Dubai has been showing its industry products at various exhibitions and shows, including the Arabian Travel Market 2008, which attracted a record number of visitors this year.

This event demonstrated a range of additions to the United Arab Emirates hotspot’s tourism industry, including the new, modern hotels that aim to boost the city’s hotel room volume to over 63,000 rooms by 2010.

Ian Scott, director of the UK office of the Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing department, said:

“Dubai is a destination where you can expect the best; known for its ground-breaking projects the emirate continues to expand its globally acclaimed leisure and business facilities of superlative quality.”

The latest addition to Dubai’s hotel industry is Atlantis The Paln, a new luxury development of two towers with 1,539 hotel rooms.

Dubai wishes to become the leading family holiday destination for both the UK and Ireland holiday markets by 2012 and this ambition is to be supported by new projects such as Dubailand, which will host 24 different theme parks and will be twice the size of Walt Disney World of Orlando, Florida.

Dubailand should be one of the world’s biggest leisure attractions and will include Marvel Entertainment and Universal Studios parks amongst its theme parks.  Brits searching for luxury holidays in a year or two are more than likely to have Dubai amongst their top choices, if not already.

Last week, the new home of the Emirates airline was finally opened – Terminal 3 at the Dubai International Airport.

The Terminal’s flights are beginning in a phased operation, so the first flight carried 136 passengers to Doha on an Emirates service.

The honour of being the first passenger to check in at the new terminal on a first class flight was Jamal Nasser Lootah, who is the Executive Director for Industrial Affairds for the ministry of economy at the United Arab Emirates.

Mr Lootah said that the new Terminal 3 should be

‘a pillar that contributes to the prosperity of Dubai’

Emirates Chairman and Chief Executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said:

‘Today our customers tasted the fruit of years of planning, investments and commitment.  While we were quite confident of the robust systems and facilities, today was still a day of reckoning and we are delighted that our operations worked as planned.’

In the new terminal’s first day of operations, flights came in from countries and destinations as diverse as New York, Sao Paulo, Jeddah and Houston, amongst others.  Flights departed for places such as Bahrain, Riyadh and Kuwait.

The next phase of the terminal’s opening is due to start shortly and will include commencing flights to Africa and the Middles East.  The European flights are not due to start until the third phase of Terminal 3.

The first event in the IRB Rugby Sevens World Series for 2008-2009 will be played in Dubai.

Fans of rugby will have the opportunity to watch the sixteen teams for the 2008-2009 rugby season face each other on the 28th and 29th November this year.  The event will be played at the new rugby venue in Dubai, the Sevens.

Tickets have been on sale for the last few days and tickets can be bought from MMI outlets in Al Wasl Road, the Mall of the Emirates, Trade Centre Road and several more destinations in the city.

The 16 participating countries for the 2008-2009 rugby series have been divided into four separate pools for each of the meetings on the tour.  Each country’s team will play the other countries in their group once.

For fans in Dubai, the prominent fixtures include a meeting between England and Fiji on the 28th November and a match between Australia and New Zealand, also on the 28th November.

Rugby fans wanting to follow the Sevens World Series action more closely will have plenty of exciting destinations to choose from.  Future meetings include events on the 5th and 6th December in South Africa and events on the 6th and 7th February next year in New Zealand, as well as many others.

The Burj Dubai tower, still under construction, is due to be 818 metres tall and this would make it the world’s tallest building… until now.

Nakheel property developers have announced plans to develop a new harbour in Dubai, which includes a new world’s tallest building.

Within the new harbour, the tower at the centre will be more than one kilometre high, which is set to dwarf the Burj Dubai tower.  It certainly seems that the Burj Dubai tower will not hold the title for long.

The new building will be a crescent shaped podium, with more than two hundred floors, and consistent of four individual towers in one single structure.

The new development will also have approximately 250,000 square metres of hotel space and hospitality space, restaurants and shops.  Retail space will have around 100,000 square metres dedicated for this purpose.

The chairman of Nakheel parent company Dubai World, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, said:

“There is nothing like it in Dubai.  Nakheel harbour and tower is located in the heart of ‘new Dubai’, where we have focused on creating a true community, a location for living, working, relaxing and entertaining, for art and culture. All of this is concentrated in one area.”

Elements of many great cities will be incorporated into the new development design, such as Alexandria in Egypt and Alhambra in Spain.