ABU DHABI – Abu Dhabi (pictured below) and China have been selected among the top ten destinations in the world by expedia.co.uk.
Other destinations to figure in the top ten places to visit in 2008 are New Zealand, Argentina, Cape Verde, Alaska, Reykjavik, Berlin, Boston and Liverpool, the 2008 European Capital of Culture.
Explaining the choice of Abu Dhabi as a leading global destination, expedia said: “Few places can have undergone such fundamental change over the past 50 years as the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
“Today visitors can enjoy the beach, desert safaris, variety enough to quench even the strongest thirst for retail therapy.”
Abu Dhabi, which is diversifying its oil-dependent economy, has attracted huge private investment in new tourism projects, which include a luxury 5 star Arabian retreat – Qasr Al Sarab – in the emirate’s Liwa desert at the Empty Quarter (Rub Al-Khali).
Qasr Al Sarab will be built seven kilometres from the main Hamim Highway crossing the Rub Al-Khali, made famous in the West through the work of desert adventurer Wilfred Thesiger, who crossed the desert expanse in the 1940s.
“The open-door policy adopted (by the government) has reflected positively on the private sector’s contribution to the tourist development projects, including the Al Saadiyat Island project, reckoned one of the largest tourist development projects regionwide,” Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi, ADTA director-general, said.
