Joining the ever-lengthening list of man-made constructions visible from space is the Palm Islands development ­ a new project off the coast of

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Joining the ever-lengthening list of man-made constructions visible from space is the Palm Islands development ­ a new project off the coast of Dubai. The plan, reportedly the Crown Prince's own idea, will create two palm-tree shaped islands, attached to Dubai's shoreline, from 160 million cubic metres of sand and rock. Each fronded isle will have a diameter of 5km and will extend 5km offshore.The design will add another 120km to Dubai's beachfront. "It was the only way to extend Dubai's coast," said Patrick Macdonald, UK director of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM). "The islands will offer an alternative to the large luxury hotels like the Jumeirah Beach Resort.

The 80 new hotels on the islands will be smaller boutique hotels of one or two storeys."The government-funded project was initiated by the Crown Prince, "a visionary force behind Dubai's development", according to Macdonald. The Crown Prince is also chairman of the DTCM and the United Arab Emirates' Defence Minister Each island will take up to four years to complete. The first is expected to have 2,000 residential villas, shopping complexes, a marine park and two marinas, each with berths for 150 yachts and 50 "mega-yachts".Tourism was identified in the late 1980s as the industry which would diversify Dubai's economy and reduce reliance on oil production. The Gulf state's visitor-drive seems to be working: up from 620,000 tourists in 1989 to 3 million by 1999 ­ 250,000 of them British.Dubai's rapid growth in popularity, said Macdonald, has been due to promotion and investment in infrastructure."There are now 90 British tour operators offering breaks in Dubai," he says.

One such operator is Travelscene, which added Dubai to its long-haul city breaks programme last year. Surprisingly, in its first season Dubai was fourth in the best-seller's league, ahead of Cape Town, San Francisco and Las Vegas.. Making a complaint about your holiday is becoming easier, thanks to a new raft of initiatives. The first is from ABTA, the Association of British Travel Agents, which has re-launched its arbitration scheme alongside the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), to provide "a lower- cost and more effective alternative to going to court". Making a complaint about your holiday is becoming easier, thanks to a new raft of initiatives.