A recent warning was made by the FCO - The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advising that after the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the city should only be visited if absolutely essential, but certainly not for family holidays or recreation as it is still considered too dangerous.
Bomb blasts went off near a number of tourist locations including luxury hotels and apartments. At least seven sites around the city of Mumbai were specifically targeted on 26th November by trained and organised gunmen.

Sites that were targeted for terrorist attacks were largely tourist and included major tourist attractions such as Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident hotels, other places that were targeted included the Cafe Leopold and Chhatrapati Shivaji train station.

Over 100 people were killed in these attacks and five times that number were injured, many of which were trapped in hotels and buildings waiting for rescue services for days.
It is not just Mumbai that the FCO discourages flights or travel to; they warn you should not travel to or through any of the more rural places of Jammu and Kashmir. These cities sit around the Indian border next to Pakistan alongside the areas of Manipur and Tripura.

India is extremely popular with British family holidays, with are over 734,000 Brits visiting India each year without any problems.

Should you need to travel to any of the parts that are warned against by the FCO you are strongly advised to keep a photocopy of your flight ticket, passport, and Indian visa, and to keep these items completely separate from the original master versions’.

Soon, the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai will be expanded to include a range of new facilities in the most ambitious expansion of its history to date.

Over half a billion dirhams (£75 million) is to be invested in the shopping mall, which will create an extra 10,500 square metres of space that can be leased to service providers and retailers.

The new expansion is due to be completed in the first quarter in 2010 and will also provide a direct link to the metro system of Dubai and an extra 750 parking spaces.

The vice president of the Mall of the Emirates, Fuad Mansoor Sharaf, said the investment was necessary in order to meet the demands from retailers who are looking to rent space in the Emirates favourite shopping mall.

He said:

“Since we opened in 2005, we have broken many records, some of which were only meant to be achieved much later.  With a footfall averaging over 2.4m a month, it is no surprise that more and more retailers want to be a part of Mall of the Emirates.”

The shopping mall is now home to more than 460 retailers, plus the Middle East’s first ever snow park, ski resort and a five star hotel.

Those looking for luxury holidays to Dubai will be excited to note that the first resort to open on the Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai is the Atlantic, The Palm.  The resort is expected to open in ten days time, it has been confirmed today.

The ultra modern tourist and hotel attraction will have 1,539 hotel rooms and from the 24th September will be open for business and welcoming its first visitors.

The owners of Atlantis claim that it will ‘redefine tourism in Dubai’ because it is set to be the emirate’s first entertainment resort with hotel and tourism on one site.

Tourist attractions on site include the largest water park in the Middle East, Aquaventure, with an open-air marine habitat and its own stretch of beach front.

Other attractions include a nightclub, a spa to relax in, a variety of boutiques and shops and four celebrity chef restaurants for fine dining.

Holidaymakers to Dubai in future will also be able to get to Atlantis through a six-lane underwater tunnel in underwater vehicles, or via a monorail, which will travel through Palm Jumeirah to get to the resort.

Flights to Dubai are available from major UK airports and there are several airlines operating the flights.

If you are searching for luxury holidays in a tropical climate, it is still nice to find a little cool relief every now and then.

Dubai’s bus network should be a much more attractive transport method for getting around the city now that 350 air-conditioned bus shelters have been installed.

Around 250 transit locations in and around Dubai now have the cooled shelters, including Deira, Qusais, Al Wasl and Jumeirah.

This new initiative is as a result of a cooperative between Dubai’s government organisations including their road and transport authority, and also a company called Right Angle Media, the company behind these air-conditioned bus shelters.

Right Angle Media’s director of operations, Jim Davies, said:

“Our commitment to providing world-class public transport amenities for commuters and tourists alike remains on top of our agenda.  We aim to make travelling in Dubai more convenient, safe and comfortable.”

Dubai is basically a desert city, getting extremely hot at particular times of the year, and is located in the United Arab Emirates to the east of the Arabian peninsula.

Most hotels and indoor areas do have air conditioning, however, if people wish to explore the city in more detail, the best times to visit are between September and May in order to avoid any uncomfortable high temperatures.

According to the Economic Times, the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi is about to offer the most expensive holiday package in the world.

The hotel is the most expensive hotel ever built at $3 billion, and this new holiday package could put them into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most expensive holiday package at $1 million or £512,147.

According to the hotel’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Janet Abrahams, the holiday package is for two guests, spending one week on an all-inclusive basis in their 680 square metre palace suite.  The package includes a daily spa treatment in the Anantara Spa, a first class return trip from any international destination by Etihad Airways and unlimited chauffeur-driven trips.

Ms Abrahams added that the deal includes tailor-made day trips such as a one day trip to Iran to create a bepoke design Persian carpet or a deep sea-diving trip to Bahrain to search for pearls.

She explained:

“The package seeks to give celebrities, luminaries and well-known businessmen the lifetime chance to stay in the unique iconic Emirates Palace, experience seven days of wonder and at the same time the opportunity to effectively promote their business message.”

Last year, the hotel showed record occupancy rates and claimed the number of guests had doubled on the previous year.

The hotel reported record occupancy rates last year, claiming that the number of guests doubled.

Later this year, travellers are invited to experience a unique venue for a music festival – in the desert.

The two day, annual global music gathering is to take place in Dubai later this year where performers from all over the world will gather to entertain the crowds.

The Desert Rhythm Festival is to incorporate a range of musical styles and genres including Caribbean, Latin, Arabic, Turkish, Western and South African styles.

Not only will there be musical performances from artists and bands, there will be plenty of other forms of entertainment, such as belly dancing, and a range of delicious food.

The Desert Rhythm Festival is being held at the Dubai Festival City on the 31st October and the 1st November and is predicted to be very popular with British tourists.

Several famous faces will be appearing this year, including Paul Weller, who will be accompanies by the Caribbean band Kassey.

Dubai is seeing a lot of new developments and development plans being put into place this year, which Dubai hopes will attract far higher numbers of tourists in the next few years.

Flights to Dubai are available with many airlines from major UK airports.

Many travellers will be wanting to take flights to Dubai or Moscow to see this - moving buildings!

This week, a new concept in buildings was announced in New York, by architect Dr David Fisher.  The world’s first moving buildings will be built in the cities of Moscow and Dubai.

These new state of the art attractions are to be called ‘Dynamic Towers’ and the first one will be in Dubai, and is set to complete in 2010.  This particular tower will be 420 metres tall with 80 floors and is in the advanced design stage at the moment.  The second tower will be in Moscow and Dr Fisher said that the third moving skyscraper is planned for New York.  The company behind the idea is called Dynamic Architecture.

Dr Fisher said:

“Additional Dynamic Towers will be built around the world, following an expression of interest from developers, governments and public officials to construct a Dynamic Tower in Canada, Germany, Italy, Korea and Switzerland.”

The floors of each skyscraper will each rotate independently, so the buildings will constantly change their shape and appearance.  In addition, they will be environmentally friendly as a wind turbine between each individual floor will make the towers the first ever buildings to be self-powered entirely.

In recent months, there has been several announcements about the different ways in which Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is planning to increase tourism to the area.

Last week, another multi-million dollar joint venture was announced - to build a new district themed around Indian entertainment, nicknamed the ‘Bollywood area’.  The Bollywood venture is being jointly funded by one of India’s most prominent entertainment brands, Yash Raj Films, and an investment company, Dubai Infinity Holdings (DIH).

The plans include a theme park, themed hotels, a movie palace and more attractions related to Indian entertainment, according to a Gulf New report.

The Chief Executive of DIH, Samira Abdul Razzak, said:

“This will be a one of a kind partnership here in the UAE.”

Head of Yash Raj Films, Yash Chopra, said:

“We are happy to be partnering up with DIH in making our foothold stronger in the region.”

Flights to Dubai will no doubt increase when the new tourist attractions open.

Today, the Queen will say goodbye to the luxury cruise ship, the QE2, which was named in her honour.

The ship was named after Queen Elizabeth II when her majesty launched it in 1967.  Today, her majesty will watch the ship set sail from Southampton and later this year, the ship will retire.

The ceremony today was to mark the 55th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.  At midday, a 41-gun salute was fired to celebrate the occasion and a 62-gun salute one hour later.

Around 300 people were invited to the event, including nine QE2 captains.  The ship will finally retire in November this year after over 40 years in service, however, that is not the end for the vessel.

The ship has been sold to Dubai World for approximately £50 million and is to be turned into a luxury floating hotel.  It will be situated close to the man-made Palm Jumeirah island, just off the coast of Dubai.  This means that if you never had the chance to stay in the QE2 whilst she sailed, you can still have the opportunity of a luxury holiday in the QE2 and combine it with a visit to Dubai.

In August of this year, 2008, Dubai will open what will be the world’s largest shopping centre or shopping mall. It will be called the ‘Dubai Mall’ and will be situated in the Downtown Burj Dubai, a major development for Dubai, which will itself soon be home to the world’s tallest building.

The statistics for the shopping centre are impressive. The mall will be more than 50 football pitches in area, receive over half the country’s shopping footfall, should increase the country’s shopping numbers by more than 30 million with over 1,200 stores, 120 food and drinks shops, an Olympic size ice skating rink and the world’s largest aquarium.

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) UK and Ireland Director, Ian Scott said:

“Dubai has seen an incredible boom in its retail sector with many exciting and pioneering shopping developments being created to inspire visitors. Dubai’s world-class shopping malls and trailblazing projects such as the Dubai Mall showcase how people have come to expect the best from the emirate.”