Dubai is building a $2.8 billion theme park

By Lulu Chang March 3, 2016

Dubai is about to bring out the kid in you, and the effort is going to cost $2.8 billion. On Tuesday, the small but mighty city already known for its over-the-top luxuries unveiled plans for a nearly $3 billion theme park that will make your childhood trips to the carnival look like, well, child’s play. The Dubai Parks & Resorts boasts a Taj Mahal-inspired theater, a theme park based on Legoland, a water park, and so much more. After all, when you’ve got 9.5 square miles to work with, the sky is effectively the limit.

“Dubai Parks and Resorts is where the best of the East meets the best of the West to create a world of fun and adventure unlike any other,” the park’s website says. Included in this magnificent world will be a shopping center and a hotel, so even if you tire of the three theme parks and adjacent water works, you’ll still be able to enjoy yourself.

And that’s certainly the hope of Dubai officials, who say they want to bring 20 million visitors by 2020, making the Dubai Parks & Resorts “the ultimate year-round international tourist destination.” Many of the attractions are based on popular movies, with a Hunger Games section promising to be catnip to Katniss fans. But if you’re not an American movie fan, no need to worry — there’s a Bollywood park, too.

Already, in preparation for the park’s grand opening, more than 400 dancers and singers have been hired from across the world to provide endless entertainment. The Resorts will have costumed characters, rappers, and acrobatic trampoline artists so that the whole family will stay amused. “What we are doing is truthfully extraordinary,” said Jason Ramsburg, the director of live entertainment at the park. “We have over 400 performers and really high-quality brands with the best of the best in the world.”

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