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Dubai - While the rest of the world is tightening its belt, Dubai threw a $20m party on Thursday complete with Hollywood celebrities like Robert De Niro and a fireworks show that organisers said was visible from outer space.
The party, headlined by Australian pop star Kylie Minogue in her Middle East debut, celebrated a new $1.5bn marine-themed resort built off the Gulf coast on an artificial island in the shape of a palm tree.
Minogue, who reportedly earned $4m for her performance, was joined by Lebanese singer Nawal and Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra at the extravagant bash that also attracted Charlize Theron and Lindsay Lohan.
Does this all seem a bit much at a time when much of the world is reeling from the global financial crisis?
Not really, according to Sol Kerzner, the chairperson of Kerzner International, which owns the Atlantis hotel.
"When you consider $20m, it's a lot of money (until) you consider it up against establishing a $1.5bn resort," Kerzner told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Kerzner International will be splitting the $20m bill with state-owned Nakheel, which built Palm island where Atlantis is located.
Kerzner acknowledged that the party was planned long before the global economy slipped into a tailspin.
"If I had it all over again and I understood that the timing was what it was, one might modify a couple of the things ... but not significantly," said Kerzner, who announced sweeping layoffs last week at the original Atlantis in the Bahamas.
Kerzner said new projects are being put on hold at his company as costs are being scaled back - a response to cash-strapped tourists rethinking their holiday plans.
Just days before Thursday's party, Nakheel announced it was re-examining staffing needs and the pace of construction of its other man-made islands in light of the worldwide economic slowdown.
The Atlantis resort opened for tourists in September. The hotel's top floor aims squarely at the ultra-wealthy. A three-bedroom, three-bathroom suite complete with a gold-leaf, 18-seat dining table is on offer for $25 000 a night.
The rest of the 113-acre resort is dedicated to family entertainment with a giant, open-air tank with 65 000 fish, stingrays and other sea creatures, including a rare whale-shark captured by the hotel in the Gulf and considered a hostage by environmental activists.
There's also a dolphinarium with more than two dozen bottlenose dolphins flown in from the Solomon Islands last year amid protests from animal rights organisations.
Thursday's lavish party is only one of Dubai's many attempts to remain in the spotlight - part of the city-state's meteoric rise from little more than a patch of sand to the business and entertainment capital of the Middle East in about a decade.
Britain's most famous cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, will be sailing in next week and will be converted into a floating hotel off Palm island.
- AP
