The Mohammed al-Otaibi Group Est in Dubai has announced plans for a 'desert snow dome' one of at least three proposed indoor snow projects for the United Arab Emirates - currently oil rich but looking to a future as an international playground once the oil supply begins to slow down.

The Mohammed al-Otaibi Group's plan is for a 1km (3,300 feet) long slope, which would make it twice as long as the world's current longest indoor slopes in Germany and Japan.

The resort would be built inside an artificial mountain to help protect the manufactured snow from outside temperatures of up to 50 celcius (over 120F) and include a four star hotel, swimming complex, ski lifts, shops and restaurants. Considering the scale of the development the price tag of £20m ($32m USA) is low compared to other recent snowdome based complexes such as the £150m ($225 US) Xscape in England which opened last year with a slope less than a quarter of the length of the proposed Dubai facility. This may in part reflect the decreasing cost of producing indoor snow reported by the various companies involved in its manufacture, the different scope of the project (Xscape incorporating a large number of shops and other leisure facilities in addition to the snow slope) and other development costs being lower in UAE than in Europe or Japan.

The Mohammed al-Otaibi Group expects the first phase of development to be completed by 2003, and for the project, dubbed "Snow World" to be completed by 2005. The company operates a temporary "Snow World" on a smaller scale with a 35m (115 feet) long slope at Dubai's "Summer
Festival."

Other companies involved in plans to develop snow domes in Dubai reported that they were at least equally as advanced in their own projects as The Mohammed al-Otaibi Group but for various reasons of commercial sensitivity they were not ready to publicise their own projects at this time.

[From Snow24]

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