DUBAI // Charlize Theron was among the A-list celebrities invited to attract attention to the lavish launch party for Atlantis, The Palm last year - but it was the firework display that stole the show.
During a stop on the long, red carpet, the Academy Award-winning actress echoed a popular sentiment as she tried to sum up the feast before her eyes.
"I can't believe they're doing this in the middle of the sea," she said.
The party at Dubai's heart-shaped pink palace, on November 19, was attended by 2,000 guests. Star wattage including the basketball player Michael Jordan, the pop star Kylie Minogue, the actor Robert De Niro and the business magnate Sir Richard Branson. Then came the fireworks. Organisers claimed they could be seen from space. The event, said to have cost US$20 million (Dh73.5m), was a definite highlight of the first year of operation.
Ten months after that grand launch party and one year after the resort opened an Atlantis official said yesterday that the hotel was "comfortable" with the number of guests it had attracted from the Emirates and around the world.
Alan Leibman, the president and managing director of the resort and its surroundings on the Palm Jumeirah, refused to reveal exactly how many guests had lain their heads on the hotel's fluffy pillows since it opened.
He would say only that the resort had maintained a high occupancy rate, with levels of 92 per cent in July and 80 per cent in August.
"It is true that promotions have stimulated demand," he said, "but we are comfortable with that."
Mr Leibman recalled the launch party as "a blur" as he talked yesterday about how the Atlantis changed the landscape of Dubai.
"There are some great hotels along the beach in Dubai, but we recognise that different customers like different things," he said. "Customers are really making the choice here. People want entertainment, they want to have a good time, and there are a lot of experiences to offer here."
The $1.5 billion resort - a joint venture between the Bahamas-based Kerzner International and Istithmar, a subsidiary of Dubai World - opened last year just as the global economic downturn began to take hold. In the same month as the launch party, a sister resort in the Caribbean laid off 800 workers because of low occupancy rates. Five months after Atlantis opened, 70 of its staff were also let go, which the management said at the time was mostly a performance-based move relating to employee probationary periods.
Mr Leibman predicted the coming months would see occupancy levels in the high 70s.
While the resort had not been immune to the economic crisis - which had a severe effect on the tourist industry, forcing a number of hotels in the emirate to cut prices and run a series of special promotions - the Atlantis team felt comfortable with the figures produced so far, he said.
"There are probably some areas we can do better, and we have had a number of promotions, but we've also seen a nice trend in occupancy," he said.
There have, of course, been hiccups along the way, starting with a fire in the lobby before the hotel even opened.
In its first few weeks the hotel was swamped with visitors, and diners were turned away from packed restaurants. A ruptured valve caused taps to run dry in hotel rooms and left incoming guests stranded in the lobby for hours as those checking out refused to do so without showers.
"We opened in a very busy time, and we wanted to ensure the best level of service," Mr Leibman said.
Since the initial problems, he said, "the customer satisfaction scores have shown a warm and friendly response" to the services available.
Yet the early crowds were not the end of the Atlantis's problems.
A young whale shark, said to have been rescued after it washed into Dubai waters, raised the anger of environmentalists and animal rights groups after it appeared and was promoted as the star attraction at the hotel's Lost Chambers aquarium.
The controversy attracted worldwide media attention, prompting the Minister for the Environment and Water, Dr Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, to say the animal would be freed. Yet almost 12 months later, amid renewed calls for its release, the whale shark remains on display. One condition of yesterday's interview with Mr Leibman was that The National would not pose questions about the shark.
According to Mr Leibman, while the hotel is seeing normal traffic of tourists from Europe, a large number of those staying come from the GCC, and it has also been exposed to a newer market from Russia and India.
"We also have a lot of repeat Dubai customers who want to experience the Palm," he said.
Reeling off restaurant names such as Nobu, Ronda Locatelli and Rostang, Mr Leibman said half the intrigue for guests was to see what it was all about.
A large part of this can be given to the added extras within the resort, namely Aquaventure and the Lost Chambers, which allow visitors to experience water slides that travel through the shark tank or tour an aquarium that is home to more than 6,500 fish and 11 million litres of water.
According to Atlantis figures, the last year has seen 650,000 visitors to Aquaventure and one million visitors to the Lost Chambers.
"The Dubai brand is very strong," Mr Leibman said.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
Barbie
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
OPTA'S PREDICTED TABLE
1. Liverpool 101 points
2. Manchester City 80
3. Leicester 67
4. Chelsea 63
5. Manchester United 61
6. Tottenham 58
7. Wolves 56
8. Arsenal 56
9. Sheffield United 55
10. Everton 50
11. Burnley 49
12. Crystal Palace 49
13. Newcastle 46
14. Southampton 44
15. West Ham 39
16. Brighton 37
17. Watford 36
18. Bournemouth 36
19. Aston Villa 32
20. Norwich City 29
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