Dubai’s flagship hotel Burj Al Arab to get a beach

Jumeirah Group is planning a major rethink of the Burj’s artificial island site to allow an exclusive beach to be created on the Arabian Gulf side.

A beach at Burj Al Arab would require the partial removal of the massive concrete “honeycombe” of rocks that encircles the island and protects it from erosion. Sarah Dea / The National

It’s birthday time. What do you give the lady who has everything? A beach, of course.

The Burj Al Arab, Dubai’s flagship hotel regarded as the “grande dame” of the emirate’s glitzy infrastructure, marked its fifteenth anniversary with the UAE’s 43rd National Day celebrations.

The hotel boasts every service top-end travellers could desire, from its own helipad, palatial duplex suites with their own butlers, right down to gold iPads and pillow menus.

But any high-rolling Burj guests who have tired of its three luxury swimming pools, and want to feel the sand under their feet, have had to take the short buggy rise across the causeway to the Madinat beaches.

That could all change under a plan being considered by the hotel’s owners, the Jumeirah Group. The company is planning a major rethink of the Burj’s artificial island site to allow an exclusive beach to be created on the Arabian Gulf side.

Gerald Lawless, president and chief executive officer of Jumeirah, said: “We’re waiting to submit the final plans. It will be a few months before we know the outcome.” The plan needs approval from Dubai authorities.

The project would involve serious engineering challenges. It took three years to reclaim the land on which the Burj sits - less time than it took to build the hotel itself.

A beach would require the partial removal of the massive concrete “honeycombe” of rocks that encircles the island and protects it from erosion.

It could also disrupt the hotel’s lucrative business, where guests pay anything from Dh6,740 per night for a standard suite to Dh40,446 for the royal suite.

Mr Lawless said: “The hotel has become a symbol of Dubai, like the Sydney Opera House is for Australia or the Eiffel Tower for France. It’s also been a great commercial success.”

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