Palm Jumeirah's hotels WILL open

Atlantis' opening ceromony

Whilst many hotel projects have suffered delays due to the global recession with several having to be cancelled, Nakheel Properties have stated that they are committed to opening at least five hotels on the Palm Jumeirah by 2011.

The Palm Jumeirah, the massive palm tree-shaped artificial island, is set to be populated with luxury hotels, villas, shopping malls, theme parks, marinas and entertainment centres, but many buildings have yet to be finished. Despite the delays, Nakheel has said that none of the 30 hotel projects set to open on Palm Jumeirah have been cancelled.

A company spokesman seemed confident when they said to Emirates Business, "Palm Jumeirah will become one of the world's premier resorts, offering more than 30 beachfront hotels, located on the island's trunk and crescent."

"A number of hotels on Palm Jumeirah's crescent and trunk are currently under construction, including Fairmont Hotel & Residences, Royal Amwaj and Oceana's Movenpick Hotel. Ottoman Place on the crescent, is due to open in the coming months with a number of hotels expected to open throughout the course of 2010."

The hotels

Currently, only one hotel has opened on The Palm - Atlantis. The seven star hotel opened in September and boasts an Aquaventure theme park, a conference centre and Dolphin Bay, a resort where guests can swim with dolphins. The opening of the hotel drew a lot of publicity when the likes of Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, Shahrukh Khan, Sir Richard Branson and Kylie Minogue attended the opening.

The opening of the hotel also featured 100,000 fireworks (seven times the amount that were used for the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony). The display lit up the entire island and was even visible from space.

Other resorts include Jumeirah, Trump International, Fairmont, IFA Hotels & Resorts, Moevenpick, Kempinski and ETA Star, but delays have forced them to alter their opening dates.

Trump International was the first company to report a delay with Donald Trump Jr, Vice-President of the Trump Organisation, saying that construction would restart in "two to three years when the real estate market in Dubai stabilises". It as meant to open this year. When finished, the $600 million Palm Trump International Hotel and Tower will be a 62-storey, stainless steel and glass Tower with 300 rooms.

Hotels aren't the only things to be delayed: the Palm Jumeriah's sister palms, the Jebel Ali and Deira have also suffered setbacks. When finished, the three islands will house 210 hotels altogether.

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