Move Over Paris, Bilbao: Here Comes Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 8, 2008 -- In five years you'll take a vacation in the Gulf Arab city of Abu Dhabi. You'll hit the beach, take a desert safari -- and tour the artistic treasures of the Louvre.

That's what Abu Dhabi is hoping and planning for the future of tourism in the Middle East. Travel brochures for the Persian Gulf city now feature water sports and Arabian adventures, but they will son feature a massive cultural district that is now under construction -- a complex of museums and pavilions crowned by the Louvre Abu Dhabi and a new Guggenheim Museum.

The cultural district's key buildings are designed by a cosmopolitan group of "starchitects" -- North American Frank Gehry, the Louvre by Swiss-French Jean Nouvel, a concert hall by Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid and a maritime museum by Japan's Tadao Ando.

"The cultural district is intended to create a cultural asset for the world, a gateway for cultural experience and exchange," Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority director general Mubarak Al Muhairi said.

"It will place the UAE capital, and the Emirates, firmly on the international cultural map," he said.

Abu Dhabi and its sister city of Dubai are on an unprecedented growth spurt of future attractions. While Dubai is building lavish hotels, the world's tallest building, a Universal Studios and a "Shrek" theme park, Abu Dhabi's investment in cultural tourism is generating a different kind of attention, excitement, and debate.

With the first museums set to open in 2012, the Cultural District on Saadiyat Island will send a large-scale message that Abu Dhabi has "arrived" on the world scene, Al Muhairi said. Tourism officials have not made public the total cost of the project, though press reports estimate a $27 billion price tag for the cultural complex.

With government revenue coming largely from state-owned oil companies, what Americans and others pay in high oil prices has provided surplus dollars -- or here, dirhams -- for this city to invest in raising its profile. It is a mix of philanthropy, public works and business plan.