NOTHING succeeds like excess and the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi is celebrating Christmas with no concession to recessions in other parts of the world.
It’s aiming for a second Guinness record as the world’s most expensively-dressed tree: its ornaments are gems worth $11 million (€8.4m).
Emirates Palace is a luxury hotel which showcases Arabian culture and hospitality operated by European hotel group Kempinski . It has a Fifa standard football pitch and is home to Manchester City’s winter training grounds.
The 13m-high Christmas tree stands under the main dome of the hotel and, says a press release written mainly in superlatives, sets the scene for the hotel’s New Year’s Eve gala ball. This “indulgent, spectacular ball . . . will welcome 2011 with a breathtaking fireworks sound and light show” it says.