Dubai is getting its own ‘Venice’ in 2020

The World Islands will soon be home to a floating ‘luxury vessel’ resort inspired by Venice, as well as a snowy Switzerland.

It’s been announced that a Dhs2.5 billion floating resort will be built near the World Islands (as well as a temperature-controlled resort on Switzerland Island where it’s always snowing, more on that later). The vessel hotel will be called The Floating Venice.

The main entrance of the floating resort will be themed on Venice’s Piazza San Marco (and yes, this is essentially a ‘ship’ that’s also a resort).

The floating resort will be able to hold 3,000 guests daily and will be split over four levels (or decks), one of which is underwater.

The developer is calling The Floating Venice a “world-first”. They say it will be “the world’s first luxury underwater vessel resort”.

The resort will have 24 pools (no bagging loungers with towels pre-breakfast-buffet then), and some of the pools will have see-through bases that will give swimmers a view of the coral life planted below (there are plans to plant 400,000 square feet of coral below the development).