Popular Global Village finds a permanent home at Dubailand

The new facilities were officially inaugurated by Salem bin Dasmal, Chief Executive Officer of Dubailand LLC.

"We are celebrating two major milestones today," said bin Dasmal. "One is that we are celebrating one full decade of Dubai Shopping Festival. The second, of course, is the finding of the permanent home for Dubai Shopping Festival's star attraction - the Global Village.

The Dubailand LLC CEO pointed out that Dubai Shopping Festival began as a small event ten years ago. It is now the model for similar events throughout the region and beyond.

"And with the Dubai Shopping Festival, the Global Village too has grown. It too began as a small event on the shores of the famous Dubai Creek next to the Dubai Municipality Headquarters. Today, it has found a new home that sprawls across a massive 17.2 million square feet of land," bin Dasmal pointed out.

For each of the past ten years, the rapid growth of Global Village has put tremendous strain on its facilities and on the roads infrastructure around where it has been held. Its own popularity has been its limitation. Its success has turned it into a Bedouin. But now all that has changed. The Global Village has found a permanent home at Dubailand and can handle any amount of visitors with any strain or bottlenecks, bin Dasmal added.

Tripled since 1996
He pointed out that the Global Village made its first beginning on the Creekside in 1996. "We had a few kiosks opposite to the Dubai Municipality. These displayed cultural products from various countries."

Then in 1997, the Global Village hosted 18 country pavilions. These have risen by three times to 46 countries that will be displaying their flags during the 2005 event.

Similarly, the number of visitors has multiplied 270 per cent. "In 1996, we saw a footfall of 1.4 million people. At the 2004 event, we registered a visitor turnout of more than 5.2 million people," bin Dasmal pointed out.

Major synergies
He said from the Global Village, in a space of ten years, has moved three times. From the Creekside, it shifted to Oud Metha area near Wafi City complex. There it stayed for five years, but ultimately could not accommodate the demand from both exhibitors and visitors. The Global Village turned then to Dubai Festival City, which has been its home for the past three years. But with the site getting ready to host a major residential, commercial and tourism development, it was time that the Global Village found a permanent home. Dubailand was a natural choice.

"The synergies that will be working at the new home are tremendous. Dubailand is a 3 billion square feet AED 35 billion vision to create the region's - if not the world's - largest tourism, entertainment, leisure and lifestyle complex. Global Village is at home there and will leverage the strengths of Dubailand and also support Dubailand's aim of ensuring a daily footfall of 200,000 people," the Dubailand LLC CEO pointed out.

He explained that the new Global Village at Dubailand will have extensive facilities and features never seen before. "The 2005 Global Village will have dedicated country pavillions along with a funfair area, extensive food courts, a fully-equipped amphitheatre that could hold 6,000 people, a manmade lake over 4,000 square metres in size and parking space for 15,000 vehicles."

15 new pavillions
There are 15 new country pavilions that will be added to the attractions of the Global Village during the 2005 Dubai Shopping Festival. These are Australia, Austria, Cambodia, Canada, Greece, Iraq, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Qatar, Kyrgyz Republic, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

"We have a totally new master plan with many new services and facilities, which offer several great investment opportunities to our private sector partners. We welcome them to come forward and take advantage of the immense potential for business that the new Global Village has to offer," bin Dasmal added.