Word: hotelful
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...rignon is set to flow as international revelers from Robert De Niro and Jean Paul Gaultier to Bollywood star Bipasha Basu gather to celebrate the grand opening of the Atlantis, a $1.5 billion, 1,500-room hotel resort that is over-the-top even by Dubai's standards. A branch of Kerzner's landmark resort in the Bahamas, the Atlantis features opulent rooms from $450 to $35,000 a night; restaurants by star chefs Nobu Matsuhisa, Giorgio Locatelli, Santi Santamaria and Michel Rostang; a giant aquarium containing 65,000 marine animals; and the Middle East's biggest theme park with...
...hotel is the crown jewel of the Palm Jumeirah, a monumental feat of land reclamation. In the shape of an Arabian date palm, it is the first in a network of man-made islands that is altering Dubai's landscape, adding 1,200 miles (2,000 km) of additional beachfront property to a desert city-state whose natural coastline is a mere 37 miles (60 km). The $20 million extravaganza aims to nail down Dubai's reputation for luxurious excess - an ambition that seems almost anachronistic now that ill winds from Wall Street and the collapse in oil prices...
...decision to go ahead with the high-gloss opening, even as hotel bookings evaporate across the world, is yet another brash statement of Dubai's ambition and confidence. "In Dubai, if you have a fantasy, you don't just fantasize about it, you build it," says Sultan bin Sulayem, Kerzner's partner in the Atlantis, whose firm, Nakheel, constructed the Palm. "It's astounding," agrees Kerzner, sipping Perrier with Sultan recently in the Atlantis' lobby bar. "When I first came here, we were in the middle of the desert. You wonder how you can continue at this pace, at what...
...child of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants to South Africa, Kerzner grew up in the back alleys of Johannesburg, and was an amateur boxer before becoming a chartered accountant. He decided to go into the inn-keeping business after his parents bought a modest hotel in the coastal resort of Durban. Still in his 20s, he built the Beverly Hills Hotel, the country's first five-star accommodation. In partnership with South African Breweries, he eventually accumulated 30 hotels stretching from Cape Town across to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius...
...global slump hasn't been the only bad omen for the launch of the Atlantis in Dubai. Only weeks before the resort welcomed its first paying guests with a soft opening in September, a fire caused by welders engulfed the hotel's lobby. That produced a public-relations nightmare of flames and smoke billowing from the site aspiring to become Dubai's next icon. Workmen managed to repair most of the damage in time, but then the Atlantis was hit by "Free Sammy" campaigners demanding the release from the aquarium of a 13 ft.-long whale shark on the grounds...