The Dubai Mall is the world's largest
shopping mall based on total area and sixth largest by
gross leasable area. Located in
Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, it is part of the 20-billion-dollar
Downtown Dubai complex, and includes 1,200 shops.
[1][2] [3]Access to the mall is provided via Doha Street, rebuilt as a double-decker road in April 2009.
[4]
Twice delayed, Dubai Mall opened on 4 November 2008, with about 635 retailers, marking the world's largest-ever mall opening in
retail history. However it is not the largest in
gross leasable space, and is surpassed in that category by several malls including the
South China Mall, which is the world's largest,
Golden Resources Mall,
SM City North Edsa, and
SM Mall of Asia.
The Dubai Mall recorded 60,000 tickets sold for the Dubai Aquarium
and Discovery Centre in the first five days, following its opening.
[5] The Dubai Mall hosted over 37 million visitors in 2009,
[6][7] and attracts more than 750,000 visitors every week.
[8] while in 2010 it hosted 47 million, and saw footfall increase by around 27 percent over 2009, despite the economic crisis.
[9]In
2012, Dubai Mall continued to hold title of world's most-visited
shopping and leisure destination, and attracted more than 65 million
visitors, an increase of more than 20 percent compared to the 54 million
recorded in 2011. It attracted more visitors than New York City with
over 52 million tourists in 2012, and Los Angeles with 41 million.
[10][11]
The numbers also surpass visitor arrivals to all landmark leisure
destinations and theme parks in the world including Times Square (39.2
million), Central Park (38 million), and Niagara Falls (22.5 million).
[12]
Description
Outside Dubai Mall near the Fountain.
Over 12 million sq ft (equivalent in size to more than 50
football pitches),
the Dubai Mall has a total internal floor area of 5.9 million square
feet (55 ha) and leasable space of 3.77 million square feet (35 ha),
about the same as the
West Edmonton Mall.
[13]
It also has 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.
[14] The mall has won five awards - two awards at the Retail Future Project Awards at
Mapic,
Cannes, in 2004, for
Best Retail Development Scheme (Large) and
Best Use of Lighting in a Retail Environment[15] and the Dubai Mall brochure collected three awards at the Summit Creative Awards 2005 in
Portland, Oregon - the Gold award for
Best Art Direction / Graphic Design, Silver award for
Best 4-colour B2B Brochure, and a
Judges Special Recognition award.
[15]
Dubai Aquarium and Under Water Zoo
Dubai Aquarium and Under Water Zoo
The shark tunnel of Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo
The Mall's Dubai
Aquarium and Discovery Centre, developed and operated by Oceanis Australia Group, officially earned the
Guinness World Record for the world's "Largest
Acrylic Panel" (32.88 m wide × 8.3 m high × 750 mm thick and weighing 245,614 kg). The acrylic viewing panel is larger than
Japan's
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
(22.5 m wide × 8.2 m high and 600 mm thick). Its 750 mm thick acrylic
viewing panel can withstand pressure of 10 million litres of water used
in the aquarium, but its transparency gives visitors clear views of over
33,000
marine animals on display.
[7] In February 2010, a leak in the aquarium caused a partial evacuation and brief shutdown of a portion of the mall.
[7]
The Mall adopted an International Standard of Ethics and Animal Welfare Policy in its development and operation.
[16][17][18]
Dubai Ice Rink
Ice Rink inside Dubai Mall.
The Mall's Dubai Ice Rink multi-purpose venue, uses
refrigeration plant technology by developing 1.5 inches (38 mm) of ice bed, 2 times the thickness of an
NHL ice rink
for Olympic-sized attraction. Dubai Ice Rink can host a capacity of up
to 2,000 guests, when converted into a multi-functional hall with a
multimedia system including a 20 m × 10 m
LED screen. Operations Manager,
Richard Rowlands, a 7 years
Welsh figure skating
pairs champion, described it: "Dubai Ice Rink in itself is an exciting
facility, bringing the first-ever Olympic-sized ice rink to Dubai. A
top-class facility offering the best of, including over 1,800 pairs of
skates imported from a leading manufacturer in Italy to fit children and
adults of all ages and sizes, the Dubai Ice Rink will host themed
nights, Learn-to-Skate programs, figure skating lessons and hockey
matches. The advanced technology used at the Dubai Ice Rink ensures that
the consistency of the ice-bed is maintained at all times. By
incorporating the refrigerator technology of pushing in glycol through a
network of pipes, and monitoring the cooling over a period of five to
six days, the 38 mm ice-bed is tailored to withstand multiple activities
in a safe environment."
[19][20]
SEGA Republic
SEGA Republic, a 76,000 sq ft (7,100 m
2) indoor theme
park,
was opened on 21 August 2009. Visitors can enjoy over 150 amusement
games; The Redemption Zone hosts one of the region's largest selection
of redemption games as well as a huge selection of winnable merchandise
for all ages. It is a park that is mainly dedicated to
SEGA's icon
Sonic the Hedgehog. The entrance to Sega Republic is located on the second floor of The Dubai Mall.
[21][22]
Reel Cinemas
Main article:
Reel Cinemas
The Reel Cinemas opened on 14 August 2009 on the second floor of
Dubai Mall. Reel Cinema is a 22 screen megaplex with more than 2,800
seats. All screens are currently open. It is the largest
cinema in the region.
[22] More than 10,000 visitors visited the cineplex in its opening week.
[23] It is operated by Reel Entertainment LLC, a joint venture formed by
Emaar Retail LLC and Singapore-based entertainment provider
Cathay Organisation
Holdings Ltd to develop cinemas across the Middle East. The flagship
22-screen Reel Cinemas at The Dubai Mall is the first megaplex developed
and operated by the venture, and will soon be followed by the 6-screen
Reel Cinemas at
Dubai Marina Mall.
The Reel Cinemas is located on the 2nd level of the mall. Of the 22
screens present, there are both 2D and 3D screens available. A new movie
starts at the Reel Cinemas every 10 minutes.
[24]
Shops
The Dubai Mall contains more than 1,200 shops and is anchored by
Galeries Lafayette,
Debenhams,
Bloomingdale's,
Waitrose and
Marks & Spencer.
In October 2009 it was reported that the world's largest candy store opened in Dubai Mall.
[25]
Construction
The mall was built by a
joint venture of Dutco
Balfour Beatty, Al Ghandi/
CCC[26] and Turner Construction
[citation needed] for
Emaar Properties
and was scheduled to be completed in 2006, claiming to be the size of
50 "international-sized football (soccer) pitches". Most of the workers
used in construction of the mall were
Indian,
Pakistani,
Bangladeshi and
Sri Lankan guest workers. The internal mobile phone coverage for Dubai Mall was commissioned, integrated and carried out by Motorola Dubai for
Etisalat and
du. Multimedia and acoustic design is by Shen Milsom & Wilke, London
[2]. Gulf precast was in charge of the precast job on the outside.
World records and achievements
Dubai Mall near the Fountain at Dusk.
- Largest mall in the world with total area 1,124,000m2.[27]
- Worlds sixth largest mall with Gross Leasable Area (GLA) 350,000m2.[27]
- World’s largest acrylic panel (Aquarium) inside Dubai Mall, which is
(32.88 m wide × 8.3 m high × 750 mm thick and weighing 245 tons).[27][28]
- World’s largest sweet shop "Candylicious" spanning over 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) inside Dubai Mall.[29][30]
- Dubai Mall records more than 5 million visitors in the month of
March,2010 during the one-month Dubai Shopping Festival, setting an
all-time record in visitor footfall[31]
- Dubai Mall has been named the best shopping experience on 29 April 2010 by Grazia Style Awards.[32]
- The Dubai Mall hosted a record 37 million visitors in its first year of operation in 2009,[6] and attracts more than 750,000 visitors every week.[8]
- The Dubai Mall hosted a record 47 million visitors in 2010, and
broke the record of 37 million visitors received last year, an increase
of 27 percent despite the economic crisis.[9]
- In 2011, Dubai Mall becomes the world's most-visited shopping and
leisure destination, and attracted more than 54 million visitors, an
increase of 15 percent from the visitors of last year.[12]
- In 2012, Dubai Mall continued to hold title of world's most-visited
shopping and leisure destination, and attracted more than 65 million
visitors, an increase of more than 20 percent compared to the 54 million
recorded in 2011. It attracted more visitors than New York City with
over 52 million tourists in 2012, and Los Angeles with 41 million.[33][34]
Incidents and accidents
- On 25 February 2010 the aquarium sprung a leak which led many shops
to temporarily close down and forced shoppers to evacuate the mall. It
reopened the following day. [35]
Photo Gallery
-
-
Dubai Mall as seen with Dubai Fountains
-
An aerial view of Dubai Mall (right)
-
The Dubai Mall (Fashion Avenue & Round Hall)
-
Dubai Mall Fashion Avenue
-
-
-
-
The Dubai Fountain at Dusk
-
Dubai Mall at night from Dubai Fountains lake
-
The Dubai Mall's gold souk
-
Dubai Mall Main entrance door
See also
References
- ^ The Dubai MallEmaar
- ^ gulfnews.com, Dubai Mall: A milestone harks back to humble origins
- ^ Lonsway, Brian. "Mall: Very Large. Center of Now. Fast." In The Dubai Mall. Singapore: DP Architects 2012.
- ^ Ahmed, Ashfaq (19 April 2009). "Double-decker roads will be open by month's end". Gulf News. p. 2. Retrieved 28 April 2009.
- ^ Dubai Mall visitors hit 60,000 | 2008 | AMEinfo.com
- ^ a b The Dubai Mall crosses landmark 30 million visitors » The Dubai Mall
- ^ a b c Stefania Bianchi (25 February 2010). "Leak at Dubai Mall Aquarium Forces Evacuation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 February 2010.
- ^ a b [1][dead link]
- ^ a b Emaar's Dubai Mall posts 27% rise in footfall in 2010 - Retail - ArabianBusiness.com
- ^ http://www.ttgmena.com/Dubai-Mall-sees-65-million-visitors-in-2012/
- ^ http://www.ameinfo.com/dubai-mall-sets-global-milestone-welcoming-328988
- ^ a b Dubai Mall claims world visitors record - The National
- ^ Dubai Mall set for August 28 opening | GulfNews.com
- ^ tradearabia.co, The Dubai Mall opens with 600 retailers
- ^ a b The Dubai Mall, Emaar, retrieved 12 March 2006
- ^ ameinfo.com, Dubai Mall aquarium breaks world record
- ^ www.albawaba.com,
Dubai Aquarium & Discovery Centre Sets Guinness Record for 'World's
Largest Acrylic Panel' at The Dubai Mall
- ^ zawya.com, Aquarium at The Dubai Mall scoops world record
- ^ arabianbusiness.com, Ice skating in the sun and sand
- ^ www.ibtimes.com, The Dubai Mall Opens With Largest Number of Retailers in the World's Largest-Ever Mall Opening
- ^ SEGA Republic » The Dubai Mall
- ^ a b Sega Republic indoor theme park opens its gates at The Dubai Mall | Emaar Malls | AMEinfo.com
- ^ More than 10,000 visit Dubai Mall cineplex in first week - Retail - ArabianBusiness.com
- ^ "Cinema At Dubai Mall". yagulf.com.
- ^ World's largest candy store opens in Dubai.
- ^ Balfour Beatty Website: Burj Dubai Mall
- ^ a b c Top 10 construction world record holders | ConstructionWeekOnline.com
- ^ Dubai
Aquarium & Discovery Centre sets Guinness Record for the ‘World’s
Largest Acrylic Panel’ at The Dubai Mall » The Dubai Mall
- ^ Inactive
- ^ World's biggest sweet shop opens in Dubai - Odd News | newslite.tv
- ^ Dubai Mall smashes record with 5 million visitors | HotelierMiddleEast.com
- ^ Dubai Mall named best shopping experience - Retail - ArabianBusiness.com
- ^ http://www.ttgmena.com/Dubai-Mall-sees-65-million-visitors-in-2012/
- ^ http://www.ameinfo.com/dubai-mall-sets-global-milestone-welcoming-328988
- ^ Aquarium leak hits Dubai Mall
External links
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