Dubai will build the world's largest retail zone in its tourism project Dubailand, providing more than 3.72 million square meters of gross leasable area, local newspaper Gulf News reported on Sunday.

The projected retail zone will be part of Bawadi, a hospitality and leisure zone worth 100 billion dirhams (27.25 billion U.S. dollars) in the tourism project Dubailand, which will host a number of Las Vegas-style hotels and Disneyland-type theme parks.

Bawadi, which will have 29,000 rooms in its 31 hotels by 2016, is being developed by Tatweer, a unit of Dubai Holding, a holding company owned by the Dubai government.

"The shopping area will consist of malls, boutique malls, street shopping and an underground shopping area connecting all Bawadi's elements to become the longest shopping boulevard," a statement by Dubai Holding was quoted as saying.

The shopping area will "accelerate our drive to develop a world- class hospitality and tourism project in Dubai and the region," said Saeed Al Muntafiq, executive chairman of Tatweer.

Dubai expects the tourism sector to play a key role in Dubai Strategic Plan, which calls for an 11 percent annual economic growth to achieve a GDP of 108 billion dollars by 2015.

Source: Xinhua