Recession Checks into Atlantis

Atlantis Hotel in Dubai is giving away rooms for about $400 a night

Remember Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, the one whose $1.3 million launch party made the recession look like a mirage? Well, it’s probably discovering that the slowdown is for real, after all. How do we know? The hotel that stands on the artificial island of Palm Jumeriah is offering a discount. The super-luxury resort, rumoured to be among the world’s most expensive, is giving away rooms for about $400 a night. And hang on, this comes with breakfast and a host of other services, all part of the summer package on offer at the recent SATTE travel and tourism fair in the Capital. Before you cluck your tongue at the calculation (Rs 20,000), allow us to point out that you’d have to cough up roughly the same for your average five-star room in Delhi or Mumbai, if not more. And Atlantis claims to be anything but average, even by snooty five-star standards. After all, the owners invested a mind-boggling $1.5 billion to set up the hotel and then cocked a snook at the post Lehman Brothers crash paranoia with their surreal opening party. Shah Rukh Khan, Kylie Minogue, Robert De Niro and everybody who mattered was flown down. Guess reality does take time to catch up when one is setting up a fairytale resort.

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Sohini Chattopadhyay