Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008 - (Page 56)

COVER STORY reminiscent of staying in a top luxury hotel. due in large part to the Dubai International Film Page says that launching the luxury suite Festival (www.dubaifilmfest.com), which is in product “was very much driven by our presiits fifth year. (Watch for this year’s festival to run dent, Tim Clark, who was very instrumental from December 11 to 18.) Dubai has long been in designing the cabin. It really differentiated popular with Hollywood for another reason: It’s our product from everybody else’s and it’s put commonly used as a background for films that us light years ahead of everyone else.” want to portray a Middle East setting. “Dubai Emirates continues to raise the bar on its and Morocco have become the two major places technological offerings; it recently added the for filming for a background of the Arab world,” capability of being able to plug a digital camera says Page, who says he expects Dubai’s popularity into the seat-back screen to view vacation photos. to continue to flourish because everyone is always Wi-Fi is now available onboard. Pending is the looking for the next “new” place. capability to enjoy cell phone service (it’s already “I think there are always people who want to been tested on the Dubai-Casablanca route). go to a new place to be able to tell their friends Page recognizes that cell phone usage is a that they’ve been somewhere different,” says contentious subject for many people. “We believe that we can manage it properly,” he says. “A maximum of seven or eight cell phones will be able to be used at one time and we will not have the system used at nighttime. We’ll be asking passengers to put their phones on vibrate at the beginning of the flight. If someone is being obnoxious with a cell phone, then our crew will just have to talk to them. So we don’t expect a problem, and we think FIRST CLASS CABINS on JFK flights are incredibly people will actually like the private. service and that they’ll use it more for SMS messaging and e-mail than for anything else.” Page. “Years ago, I used to look after the CaribDebuting the New York-Dubai flights was bean for British Airways on the marketing side, just the beginning of Page’s task of expanding and every year there used to be an ‘in’ place in service from the U.S. This past December, the Caribbean. The question was always, which he oversaw the launch of nonstop service place was it going to be that year?” between Houston and Dubai. On September 1, When asked whether he believes Dubai 2008, service will begin at Los Angeles’s LAX, will become a hot spot for U.S. jetsetters which will be followed by San Francisco willing to fly there for a long weekend, Page (SFO) service on October 26. notes that Europeans have been doing that “Houston, Texas, has always been very aware for years, primarily for shopping. He does of Dubai because of the oil industry,” says Page. see the potential for affluent U.S. travelers to “And in a city like San Francisco, where people purchase a second home on Dubai’s Palm or are well read and very culturally aware and into World islands, and laughs when he recalls a the arts and travel, I’m sure we’ll be able to get friend’s friend who flew to Dubai for a stay at them to look at Dubai quite seriously.” Los Anthe ultra-luxurious Burj al Arab and Ritzgeles is also becoming aware of Dubai, says Page, Carlton hotels. “For her, the highlight was finding a pair of matching earrings to a Bulgari necklace that she had. Instead of $24,000, it cost her $14,600; she thought she had a real bargain! She now wants to go back because she had such a great time. She loves the place, but what really made it for her was the earrings.” Page says he expects the U.S. market’s knowledge base of Dubai to continue evolving, especially as more and more of the megaproducts that are part of its enormous master development plan come to light, such as the Dubai Festival City along Dubai Creek and the Burj Dubai, which upon completion will be the tallest building in the world. “Dubailand will be like a Walt Disney World but it will be twice the size, in fact, and bigger than the island of Manhattan. These are enormous projects and while people in the United States read quite a lot about Dubai, I don’t think that really prepares one for the sheer scale of what is going on in Dubai. It is breathtaking when you go there, the sheer scale of it,” says Page. When asked if he misses the more humble Dubai he first encountered 34 years ago, Page says he loves what Dubai is now, what it’s become. “The Dubai in between was lovely, too. We would drive down to the beach and we’d be there all day on our own. All that sort of thing has gone with hotel developments and I suppose you could get nostalgic and say, ‘What a shame,’ but to be honest, you have to accept that it’s a new place and that it’s got a new character and that it’s a very dynamic and exciting place.” In fact, one could say Page is even enamored of the new Dubai. “I like it so much, I’ve actually bought an apartment there,” he tells Luxury Travel Advisor. “It’s on the other side of the road from the Dubai Marina. Who knows? When I decide to retire, maybe I’ll live there,” he says with a grin. 56 LUXURY TRAVEL ADVISOR | June 2008 http://www.dubaifilmfest.com

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Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008 Contents Publisher's Letter Editor's Letter Paris Shanghai New York Takeover Hotels Townhouse Galleria Florida Spas BVI Bliss Athens, Greece Rainforest Excursions Nigel Page The Pulse Jetset Report Just Back On Location Sightings Agent Access Source List

Luxury Travel Advisor - June 2008

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