This Is How Nike Became Famous
9-207-005
REV: MAY 24, 2007
WILLIAM GOETZMANN IRINA TARSIS
Dubailand: Destination Dubai
The biggest war that any country can engage in is that of development. Although it is a long and costly war, the number of soldiers increases instead of decreasing. So let’s take part in the war of development together, and let our victims be poverty, ignorance, and backwardness. — Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai1 Dubailand, designed to be the world’s largest amusement park, was rising out of a stretch of desert near Arabian Gulf. As envisioned, the complex would cover three times the surface of Manhattan, or 45,900 acres, and nearly 5% of Dubai, a tiny emirate on the Arabian Gulf with population of one million. In addition to the park, Dubai had other ambitious development projects underway—all marvels of engineering—including three vast artificial resort islands shaped like palm trees, with one surrounded by smaller islands arranged to form the graceful lettering in an iconic Arabic poem,2 and a man-made archipelago of 300 private islands four kilometers from shore arranged in an elliptical Mollweide Projection of the world.a Part of a plan to draw 15 million tourists to Dubai by 2010, the $5 billion amusement park was expected to dwarf all entertainment, leisure, and tourism centers of the world. The completed complex would contain six themed “worlds,” each with numerous separate amusements, and a large shopping center. In addition to rides and shopping, the complex would house the largest zoo in the Middle East, an artificial rain forest, several five-star hotels, concert halls, art galleries, and sport arenas. Dubailand’s target audience would be families of all nationalities from disparate corners of the world, who would come to the region for extended vacations and return to experience additional theme worlds. The key to Dubailand’s success lay in attracting the right mix of investors and in managing shortcomings endemic to the region such as
REV: MAY 24, 2007
WILLIAM GOETZMANN IRINA TARSIS
Dubailand: Destination Dubai
The biggest war that any country can engage in is that of development. Although it is a long and costly war, the number of soldiers increases instead of decreasing. So let’s take part in the war of development together, and let our victims be poverty, ignorance, and backwardness. — Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai1 Dubailand, designed to be the world’s largest amusement park, was rising out of a stretch of desert near Arabian Gulf. As envisioned, the complex would cover three times the surface of Manhattan, or 45,900 acres, and nearly 5% of Dubai, a tiny emirate on the Arabian Gulf with population of one million. In addition to the park, Dubai had other ambitious development projects underway—all marvels of engineering—including three vast artificial resort islands shaped like palm trees, with one surrounded by smaller islands arranged to form the graceful lettering in an iconic Arabic poem,2 and a man-made archipelago of 300 private islands four kilometers from shore arranged in an elliptical Mollweide Projection of the world.a Part of a plan to draw 15 million tourists to Dubai by 2010, the $5 billion amusement park was expected to dwarf all entertainment, leisure, and tourism centers of the world. The completed complex would contain six themed “worlds,” each with numerous separate amusements, and a large shopping center. In addition to rides and shopping, the complex would house the largest zoo in the Middle East, an artificial rain forest, several five-star hotels, concert halls, art galleries, and sport arenas. Dubailand’s target audience would be families of all nationalities from disparate corners of the world, who would come to the region for extended vacations and return to experience additional theme worlds. The key to Dubailand’s success lay in attracting the right mix of investors and in managing shortcomings endemic to the region such as