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The task of delivering the first phase of the long delayed and larger-than-life Bawadi strip of hotels in Dubailand has been given to Emaar Properties. Claire Ferris-Lay reports on the mega-project that aims to transform the emirate's hospitality industry.

After almost three years on the drawing board, the US$27bn Las Vegas-style Bawadi project is finally about to become a reality.

Emaar Properties, the largest real estate developer in the Middle East and North Africa, has been given the mammoth task of making the project happen. It will be a far from straightforward development to deliver and perhaps Emaar's most difficult project yet.

"I think it will be a challenge. The sheer size of the project and the number of rooms coming into that area means attracting people will be tough," says Irfaan Lalani, a Dubai-based hospitality analyst for Jones Lang LaSalle, the world's second-largest commercial property broker.

The Bawadi development, a 10km strip in the middle of Dubailand, touted as the world's most ambitious tourist, leisure and entertainment project, is set to become the world's largest hotel and retail development.

Home to 51 hotels including the world's largest, and styled on the gaming capital of the world, the only thing Bawadi doesn't have on Las Vegas is a licence to gamble.

"In many ways Bawadi resembles Las Vegas except the UAE does not allow gaming," agrees Roy Cherry, assistant vice president of research at Shuaa Capital.

Tourism is set to become Dubai's biggest source of income as it seeks to reduce its reliance on the oil industry. By 2015, tourism across the emirate will contribute 11% in annual growth to achieve a GDP of US$8bn.

Much of that will be dependent on the success of the Bawadi project that will emerge along a patch of what is now empty desert, over the next four years.

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