Dubai turns QE2 into floating hotel
After 40 years sailing the seas as part of Cunard’s luxury cruise line, the famous Queen Elizabeth II is to be turned into a floating hotel in Dubai’s Port Rashid.
After buying the ship five years ago for $100 million the state-run company Istithmar World has now decided turn the QE2 into a luxury floating hotel to attract tourists to the area.
The ship will be permanently docked in Port Rashid and will stand alongside a proposed maritime museum as well as an expanded cruise ship terminal complex.
The plans are to keep many of the ship’s original furnishings and it is expected that the 300-room hotel will open within 18 months.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of Istithmar World said in a news conference near the ship’s mooring, “We are not making major changes. We will preserve its tradition and the way it was. It's a great vessel and it will continue its journey to serve the tourist sector in Dubai”.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II launched the QE2 in 1967 and since then it has made at least 26 round the world voyages.
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