The Dubai Mall is a shopping mall in Dubai completed in 2008. It is the largest mall in the world by total land area. It has a total retail floor area of 502,000 square metres. The mall has over 1,200 shops. In 2011, it was the most visited building in the world. Every year it has over 54 million visitors. It ranks 26th in the world in terms of gross usable space.
Dubai Mall
Its facilities include a 250-room luxury hotel, 22 cinema screens plus 120 restaurants and cafes. The Mall has over 14,000 parking spaces across 3 car parks, with valet services and a car locator ticketing system. The Mall also has Olympic-sized Dubai Ice Rink for skating.
The Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, with more than 300 species of marine animals, including sharks and rays, is located in the Dubai Mall. VR Park Dubai is also located in the Mall. It has a floor area of 76,000 sq ft.
The park is dedicated to virtual reality under the name of VR Park Dubai. Reel Cinemas is a 22-screen cinema located in the mall that has four cinema suites, and 17 commercial halls. Rainforest Cafe opened in 2009 faces the aquarium and is made to emulate tropical ruins with moving ruins and light shows. Hysteria is a haunted house. It is decorated with special effects, fog lights and strobe lights. KidZania is an interactive children’s sized edutainment theme park.
Dubai Mall is owned by Emaar Properties, one of the biggest developers in Dubai.
Tourist accommodation in Dubai is relatively expensive. During the last three years, the number of 4 and 5-star hotels increased while the number of hotels of less than 4 stars decreased. Between 2015 and 2017 the total number of rooms increased by 9.25% to 9,98. Up to 2018, the hotels had an average occupancy of 78%. In 2019 the occupancy dropped to 75%, while in 2020 it further dropped to 54% due to Covid-19.
Dubai Accommodation
As of 2020, there were 134 five star hotels with 44,067 rooms and 161 four-star hotels with 34,905 rooms.
In early 2013 the plan to build the first underwater hotel, the Water Discus Hotel, was announced. This will be the world’s largest hotel of its kind. This hotel will supplement the two underwater suites in existence at Dubai’s The Palm: Atlantis accommodation venue.
