Tourists visiting the Burj Khalifa have told how dozens of people “began to cry” after being stranded on the building’s observation deck for over an hour.
At the Top, a visitor attraction located on the 124th floor of the world’s tallest building, is temporarily closed to the public following “technical issues with the power supply” but is scheduled to reopen on Sunday, February 14.
A senior Dubai Civil Defence official confirmed to Gulf News on Monday there was an incident at the Burj Khalifa on Saturday evening.
The official said: “This is a minor case; it was not serious at all. Staff members at the Burj Khalifa handled the situation perfectly. Our role was to ensure the safety of the public. It is absolutely normal for a new building to face minor issues such as this, which involved one of the Burj Khalifa’s elevators.”
Gulf News spoke on Monday to several tourists who were stranded on the observation deck for over an hour on Saturday.
Michael Timms, a 31-year-old telecommunications engineer from the US, said: “I was walking around the observation deck when I heard this really loud noise and what looked like smoke or dust coming out from one of the elevator doors. There were at least 60 people on the deck at the time. Employees and security staff were telling people that everything was ok. But once it became clear we were not being allowed back down, some people got really angry while others started crying.”…SOURCE
The oasis city has reached a deal with the US-based company to provide a host of online services to connect with residents and manage its internal operations.
Residents will be able to check information on new developments on Google maps, have city documents translated to another language and, possibly, have a direct e-mail connection with the local government.
Internally, the municipality will use Google systems for tasks such as document management and project planning.
Al Ain to Incorporate Google Services
“We can help Al Ain to maximise the effectiveness of its e-government portal [and] link all the information and resources available to Al Ain residents,” said Matthew Landeg, the head of enterprise sales for Google.
He was in Al Ain to speak with municipality department heads about how the company could strengthen the city’s online resources and provide better services and greater transparency to the community.
One idea that came out of the meeting was to set up a Google e-mail account for every household and use it to communicate with residents.
“If this idea is indeed put into effect, the Al Ain Municipality will probably be the first in the world to do this,” a spokesman said…SOURCE
The world’s tallest skyscraper, Burj Dubai, will open on December 2, the project developers have said in a commitment of date. The opening coincides with the 38th National Day of the United Arab Emirates.
“We are shooting for the National Day,” Emaar Properties Chairman Mohammed Alabbar told CNN on Friday. “I think it is achievable; lot of challenges, but we will get there.”
Speaking about the last-minute touches, he said, “We have about 12,000 people inside the building and outside trying to achieve the December 2 opening.”
Construction of Burj Dubai, which shoots 800 metres into the skies over Business Bay, began on September 21, 2004 as part of the $20-billion Downtown Burj Dubai real estate development.
The opening of Emaar’s flagship project has met with delays. It was originally scheduled to open last September. Since then there has been suspense over whether it would, in fact, open by the end of 2009… SOURCE
“Misuse” of the Metro by some commuters had led to intermittent service with delays at stations and causing inconvenience to commuters during the first two days of the Metro operation, an RTA official said.
Peyman Younes Parham, an RTA spokesperson, said: “Some passengers on board pushed emergency buttons to open or close the doors or just for fun and this led to delays in the train service,” he said, adding that most of the commuters do not yet know how to use the train… SOURCE
Long before the first train of the day, it was clear that the Dubai Metro’s debut weekend would provide the biggest challenge of its short history.
Crowds of would-be passengers descended on stations beginning early in the morning, unaware that no train would run until 2pm. The crush threatened to overwhelm both staff and the system, with officials estimating that 30,000 passengers passed through the turnstiles in the first two hours of operation yesterday.
Last night, several stations were briefly closed and service was suspended after reports that some passengers had been hitting the emergency stop buttons on the crowded trains.
At the Mall of the Emirates station, where some of the biggest crowds congregated, Metro employees used a megaphone to urge passengers to stay calm and not push. Workers were later joined by transport police after the queuing system threatened to break down as dozens of men tried to push their way through to platforms.
Nakheel Station was also closed for a while in the evening, with staff saying that a train had broken down, halting service for at least an hour. Trains were stationary at Al Rashidiya as well, at the end of the Red Line, for more than an hour, forcing some passengers to abandon their journeys.
Mohammed Sageer said he boarded a train with his family at 6pm and was still waiting to leave an hour later. There was no air conditioning and lights were flickering on and off at the station.
“There was no information, people were getting very confused and women and children were getting upset,” he said, adding that Metro staff were unable to offer refunds.
Services were due to be extended past the official closing time of midnight to 2am so passengers could return home…SOURCE
Dubai Airports has won the Newsweek Award of Excellence, achieving the accolade ‘The Single Largest Development in Aviation History in the Region’.
It was chosen for the award by senior correspondents and writers of the Newsweek (Arabic) editorial board.
Dubai Airports chief executive officer Paul Griffiths said the growth and development of Dubai city and Dubai Airports were closely inter-linked.
“As the city has grown, Dubai Airports has seen an increase in the number of its client airlines and their passengers, bringing more business, industry and professional expertise to enhance Dubai’s business acumen and standing in the world community,” he said in remarks made available here…SOURCE
Dubai: The Union Square station of Dubai Metro in Deira is the world’s biggest underground metro station in terms of covered area, said a senior official.
“The Union Square underground metro station which spans an area of 25,000 square metres is the biggest metro station. The station is 230 metres long, 50 metres wide, has three levels and is 18 metres deep,” said Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA)…
Dubai Government officials have tried to sound upbeat in recent days, saying that the ‘bad times’ are now in the past, and that might be technically correct – with property and equity prices now so low that the additional possible downside is limited. Yet there are few in local business who do not see a hard road ahead.
Dubai Land Department figures showed some buyers getting extraordinary bargains last week with a total of 12 villas changing hands for an average of $286,000 each, and 535 apartments sold for an average price of $193,000. Agents talk of ‘distress selling’ and indeed at these price levels the downside is relatively low for buyers.
$10bn bond
However, the idea that the $10 billion raised from the UAE Central Bank in a government bond issue will restore the Dubai boom look wide of the mark. This is a substantial sum. But there are billions in loans to refinance, interest to pay on $80 billion in total debts and a lot of money now outstanding to contractors.
Dubai has the unenviable task of unwinding a real estate boom in the face of the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s. That is a major challenge even with the rich UAE federation as a lender of last resort.
There are difficult choices ahead. It is already clear that construction work is proceeding at full speed on The Palm Jumeirah, Downtown Dubai and the Burj Dubai and Business Bay. On many other sites across the city work has stopped, and it is hard to see how this will restart anytime soon.
Global trade has fallen off a cliff in the first quarter of 2009, and Dubai as the trading hub of the Middle East has clearly been affected.
The oil market also looks unreasonably weak given this collapse in trade and slumping economies around the globe. The International Energy Agency has warned that oil demand will drop by 2.4 million barrels per day in 2009, citing a growing consensus that economic recovery will be delayed until at least 2010…SOURCE
Like all good columns, it always helps to have a celebrity endorsement or two. Movie and television, erm, egend David Hasselhoff is currently spending some time in Dubai, and felt so moved that he had to blog about it.
So, to mark this momentous occasion, this week’s blogosphere will not look into events in cyberspace. No, this week we’ll be looking at what’s happening in Hoffspace (yes, that is what he calls it). The Hoff, as he is affectionately known around the world, waxed on lyrically about Dubai in his video blog, spending quite a bit of time at Ski Dubai.
This is The Hoff unedited: “Dubai is a fun place; it’s a little bit like the Las Vegas of the Middle East because there’s always something fun to do!
“The Mall of the Emirates is huge as you can see and filled with some of the best shopping in the world, but the best part of the mall is Ski Dubai; an indoor ski slope!!!! We had such a great time here and the skiing was really good! Check it out if you’re ever in Dubai. It’s awesome!”…
Tourism officials hope to dispel negative perceptions of Dubai in a campaign that will show world travel’s opinion makers the emirate as it really is.
“Keep Discovering Dubai” will bring more than 2,000 travel industry professionals and media to Dubai from now until May.
The campaign would help change “current negative perceptions” of the emirate, a source at Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing said.
The source was referring to illegal dumping of sewage on Dubai beaches and reports of an outbreak of legionnaire’s disease at a hotel, which were later disproved.
At stake is the emirate’s largest single revenue generator, worth Dh57 billion every year – 19 per cent of its economy.
Hoteliers and tour operators welcomed the move by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), in partnership with Emirates Airline.
“Bringing in people to see the emirate first-hand is going to make a huge difference,” said Kulwant Singh, the managing director of Lama Tours, one of the largest operators in Dubai.
“At a time when countries such as Malaysia and Singapore are at war with Dubai to snatch tourists from us, the DTCM is supporting the brand it has created and putting up a fight.”
The department will pay for familiarisation trips of three to four days to more than 1,000 of the travel agents and tour operators, and more than 300 members of the media, the source said.
“These two groups have been identified as our main target through which we will effectively influence potential travellers.”
The objective of the familiarisation trips is to provide travel agents and media with first-hand experience of desert safaris, restaurants and cultural attractions such as the Bastakiya neighbourhood near the Dubai Creek.
“It looks like a great initiative to educate the retail travel agents,” said Jeff Strachan, the area director of Marriott Hotels in the Middle East.
Since the start of the crisis, the leisure capital of the UAE has seen hotel occupancy rates and margins fall….SOURCE
Too bad they are too buy destroying actual culture like the Dhow harbor and Satwa.
Britney Spears is being lined up to give a private concert for super-rich Dubai Arabs, according to UK tabloid the Daily Star.
Pakistani Sheeraz Hasan, founder of celebrity website hollywood.tv, is reported to have approached Spears for a one-off appearance that could net her $4 million.
Hasan claims he has already secured tabloid editor’s second favourite blonde, Paris Hilton, for a personal appearance in Dubai…LINK
The Apple iPhone will remain out of reach for a large number of customers, with Etisalat requiring those who have not had a contract with the company for at least six months to pay the full cost of the device – between Dh2,600 (US$707) and Dh3,000 – up front.
In addition, customers who already own an iPhone could not switch to the special iPhone packages without buying a new handset from the company, said Khalifa al Shamsi, Etisalat’s vice president for consumer marketing.
“Etisalat is providing the iPhone as a bundle with the package,” he said. “Hence, the price plans are available only for consumers who have bought the device from Etisalat.”
The policy is contrary to previous statements by the company reported in the local media, and the advice being given by some Etisalat sales staff in retail outlets in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Etisalat offers eight monthly plans for the iPhone. In most of the plans, it subsidises the cost of the handset in return for a higher monthly fee. But such plans were not available to new or pre-paid customers, or those shifting from the du network, the company said yesterday.
Although the requirements were not announced during the launch of the phone, and cannot be found on the company’s sales materials and contracts, potential customers have told The National that they were turned away after attempting to sign up for iPhone plans in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah…SOURCE
02/22/2009 12:00 AM | By Naushad K. Cherrayil, Staff Reporter
Dubai: etisalat has finally brought iPhone 3G to UAE and Saudi Arabia through its subsidiary Mobily.
“iPhone is a perfect blend of advanced functionality and high performance and we are delighted to be one of the first operators in the region to offer this to our customers on the nation’s most advanced high-speed network to make calls, send emails and surf the web even faster,” Essa Al Haddad, etisalat Chief Marketing Officer, said…
The National Media Council has dismissed an English author’s claims that her book has been banned in the UAE, after her allegations left a literary festival embroiled in controversy this week.
Geraldine Bedell claimed that her novel, The Gulf Between Us, had been banned from sale because it features a homosexual character. Her publisher, Penguin, repeated the claim.
The charges prompted the Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, a Booker Prize winner, to boycott the International Festival of Literature in Dubai that she was due to attend and at which Ms Bedell’s book was to be launched. Others among the 60-plus authors scheduled to attend the International Festival of Literature next week have contemplated following suit or have written letters of protest.
But Ibrahim al Abed, director-general of the media council, said the book had not been banned and was highly unlikely to be.
“It’s not our policy to ban any book unless it’s crude pornography or it’s contemptuous of religion — whether it’s Islam or any religion,” he said. “Our country is known to be open. More than 70 per cent of the population are non-Emiratis. They’re living freely and openly.”
The festival organiser, Isobel Abulhoul, said Ms Bedell had been informed in September of the decision not to feature her book in the festival.
“We are very disappointed and a little surprised that it has taken so long for anyone to reconsider their position,” she said in a statement, particularly as it “has come to the public’s attention only now and around the publication of her novel”.
She added: “We have tried to contact Ms Atwood asking her to reconsider as we would like to speak directly with her to share the full picture.”…MORE
underground metro station in terms of covered area, said a senior official.
erm, egend David Hasselhoff is currently spending some time in Dubai, and felt so moved that he had to blog about it. 
“Keep Discovering Dubai” will bring more than 2,000 travel industry professionals and media to Dubai from now until May.
Pakistani Sheeraz Hasan, founder of celebrity website hollywood.tv, is reported to have approached Spears for a one-off appearance that could net her $4 million.
a literary festival embroiled in controversy this week.
