Few of Dubai’s well-heeled night club owners were surprised when a receipt from Dubai’s Cavalli Club, Restaurant & Lounge forAED387,988 ($105,629) surfaced on the web this month.

The emirate’s status as a less conservative holiday hotspot coupled with its booming hospitality industry is attracting a slew of western nightclub brands to the city, all looking to capitalise on the growing nightlife scene.

London-based nightclubs Mahiki, Cirque du Soir and Movida have all opened branches of their famous clubs in Dubai in the last four months.

“Dubai has gone from a sandy holiday resort to a major international destination in the last few years. You can definitely seen an upward trend in terms of the tourists coming here; they don’t just want to enjoy the sun, they want to enjoy Dubai, its restaurants, its clubs and bars,” Mark Merran, founder of Movida, told Arabian Business.

“Movida is very well known in this market….All the VIP clientele of Dubai have visited Movida in London,” he said.

Movida, a popular hangout for celebrities in London, said tables at its Dubai club had been fully booked three nights a week for the last month. Prices for a table start at AED5,000 and reach upwards of AED80,000 while the average guest spends around AED1,000, said Merran.

“It’s been a big success. In my experience night clubs don’t really reach their full potential for about three months…..it takes a while for it to filter through to the general public so I think we are ahead of the curve,” he added.

Dubai was one of the hardest hit by the global economic downturn, which forced many expatriates to return home and saw tourism figures decline. But the emirate’s safe haven status amid the Arab Spring alongside its luxury hotels, restaurants and nightclubs has boosted tourism.

Passenger traffic through Dubai’s international airport rose 8.9 percent year-on-year in November while Dubai was the region’s only destination to show a rise in hotel occupancy and revenue per available room in 2011, according to Ernst & Young.

Travel and tourism contributed 16.6 percent – or $42.56bn – to Dubai’s GDP in 2010, according to estimates from the Abu Dhabi Economic Development Department.

The French Polynesian themed nightclub Mahiki, a reported favourite of Prince Harry’s, opened its doors in November.

“We looked at lots of cities all over the world…..the reason Dubai worked so well is because it seemed to be in a very similar position to where London was six years ago when we opened the original Mahiki,” said Matt Jolley, general manager at Mahiki Dubai.

“The economic situation in the world did play a part [in our decision to open in Dubai]. Dubai and the UAE in particular seemed to be much more stable than the rest of the world. And because you that have high-end tourists, the spenders [it works],” he added.

Cirque Du Soir, a circus-themed night club that features contortionists, sword swallowers, magicians and fire eaters, opened in November. The club’s owners, the Pragma Group – who also own Cavalli Club – said it’s “not uncommon to see guests spending hundreds of thousands of dirhams in one evening.”

The Dubai-based group, which saw revenues at its Cavalli club increase 40 percent last year, said the emirate continues to attract a high spending clientele from Russia and the GCC.

“Dubai…..has successfully positioned itself as an international hub and gateway for the world’s travelling community, as well as a tourist destination in its own right. Visitors to Dubai, especially those familiar with its exclusive leisure and hospitality offerings, are willing to spend to get the ultimate experience,” said Joe Tabet, chairman of Pragma Group.

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An anonymous high-roller has raised the bar on nightclub spending in the UAE after racking up a tab of nearly AED500,000 at Abu Dhabi’s exclusive L’Etoiles club in the Emirates Palace hotel.

The AED478,056 (about $130,147) bill, dated Jan 4, was posted on social media sites just days after a $105,000 receipt from Dubai’s Cavalli Club made headlines across the Gulf state.

Topping the tab were 22 bottles of Cristal champagne, at a cost of AED6,000 each, followed by Johnnie Walker King George V whisky at AED10,000 a bottle.

Also included in the celebrations were 21 bottles of luxury Dom Perignon champagne, at a cost of AED109,200, and four bottles of Moet Brut costing AED74,260.  The bill also included 36 cans of Red Bull, Coke, Voss water and Marlboro cigarettes.

The bill was more than $25,000 more expensive than the tab racked up in the Cavalli Club two days earlier, where staff told Arabian Business they regularly play host to high-rollers.

The nightspot says an average of 24 tables a year – so two a month – spend between AED200,000 and AED500,000 in a single evening.

“Despite individuals and businesses feeling the effects of the downturn throughout 2011, Cavalli Club has seen high-spenders consistently frequent the venue,” said David Lescarret, operations manager at Cavalli Dubai. “Last year saw an average of two tables per month spend between AED 200,000 to AED 500,000 in one night, and we expect this trend to continue into the New Year, with one customer already having spent just under AED 400,000.”

The luxurious nightclub said it stocks the most expensive champagne in the world – the Louis Roederer, Millennium Cristal Brut 1990, priced at a massive AED500,000 for a single bottle.

There are only two other Millennium bottles for sale around the globe according to bar managers, which can be found in London and New York.

Eileen Wallis, managing partner at Dubai-based PR firm the Portsmouth Group, said the initial idea to post the Cavalli bill was a clever trick that had netted the nightclub publicity, but warned the strategy now risked becoming “a rather tasteless game of one-upmanship”.

“In our experience, true luxury brands don’t want to call attention to the cost of their goods but the perceived value of the experience – and it’s not especially tactful to do so in today’s economy,” she said.

L’Etoiles declined to comment.

Source: arabianbusiness.com/