New Year's Day will bring many things. Well-wishers and revellers will gather at tourist spots and significant sites around the UAE to mark the arrival of 2018 with a bang, as they come together to watch one of the official fireworks displays. Some residents and citizens will, undoubtedly, baton down the hatches on the evening of December 31 and wake up with a little trepidation in their hearts the following morning as the country says hello not just to a new year but to a new era as well, with the introduction of value added tax. Many others, one suspects, will make a more literal step into the unknown by heading down to Dubai's newest attraction, the Dubai Frame, which opens on January 1. Billed as a new year's gift to the public, it promises to be a little different.
As The National reported, the 150-metre tall attraction will offer stunning views of the city and for those of a strong constitution, a glass-floored viewing platform on its sky deck. For visitors who would prefer to keep closer to solid ground, there is also a Future Dubai Gallery at its mezzanine level, which imagines the city 50 years from now.
While visitors will have to wait until Monday at the earliest to see the future, it is a subject worthy of debate. Traditional tourist cities in the West, such as Rome, Paris or London, trade on their heritage. Others, such as New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, deliver riots of colour, street life and architecture. Dubai has rightly forged a reputation for itself as a city of the future through its visitor experience, its attractions, hotels, cultural stops and, even, its shopping malls. Its effect is to create a deep sense of magnetism that brings visitors and people back to its doors time and again, charmed and corralled by its energy and its promise.
The Dubai Frame’s operators say the attraction will offer visitors the chance to gaze at both the old and new parts of the city from its Zabeel Park location. What visitors will see when they get there, is a completely different view of a city that specialises in offering a fresh perspective.
