The largest shopping centre in the world
With more than 1200 shops, 120 restaurants and cafés, an enormous aquarium with 30,000 fish, and an Olympic skating rink, the Dubai Mall is a spectacular attraction. Shop at Marc Jacobs and Manolo Blahnik and eat at Ping Pong Dim Sum or Yo Sushi. Enjoy a few rounds on the skating rink when the outside temperature soars to 40 degrees, or relax in a bubble bath at Acqua di Parma.
The Dubai Mall breaks world records. With more than 1.1 million square feet, this is the largest shopping centre in the world. It houses the world's largest candy store, called Candylicious , which measures 930 square metres. And the mall claims to be the most visited leisure destination in the world, welcoming 65 million visitors (in 2012) a year, far more than the entire city of New York.
Shopping, ice skating or a visit to the gold souk?
The skating rink accommodates 2,000 spectators. There are also plenty of opportunities to shop: visit the gold souk with its 220 jewellers, browse the large department stores of both Marks & Spencer and Galeries Lafayette, or pick up the latest fashion at the Chanel, Dior, Gucci or Louis Vuitton flagship stores. And apparently there is still room to expand the biggest shopping mall in the world: the Dubai Mall is adding another 100,000 square metres of retail space so that in future it can accommodate 100 million visitors a year.
“The Dubai Mall, next to the camel racetrack, takes up ground space the size of approximately 50 football fields”