Dubai Frame — a marvelous golden “picture” of a city
Dubai Frame is one of the city’s most photographic landmarks: a gigantic gilded rectangle that literally frames the skyline, connecting past and present in a single bold gesture. Below I’ve collected the key facts, construction figures, how it’s built and kept stable, visitor numbers, and a realistic estimate of its direct ticket income — plus context about how attractions like this fit into Dubai’s tourism economy.
Quick facts
Form and location: a 150-metre tall, rectangular “frame” in Zabeel Park that gives panoramic views of Old Dubai on one side and Modern Dubai on the other. (Dubai Frame)
Footprint / dimensions: roughly 150 m high and 95 m wide (often reported as ~150 × 95 m). (Dubai Frame)
Opening: construction began in 2013; the attraction opened to the public in January 2018. (Wikipedia)
Construction: materials and cost
Structural materials (official figures): the project used over 9,900 cubic metres of reinforced concrete, about 2,000 tonnes of steel, and ~2,900 m² of laminated glass for the observation/bridge areas. The outer cladding uses more than 15,000 m² of gold-coloured stainless steel. These quantities underline both the scale and the visual treatment (the gilded surface). (Dubai Frame)
Cost: construction cost is commonly reported as AED 230 million (about USD ~62.6 million, depending on exchange rates). (Wikipedia)
Stability and structural design (how it stands up)
Conceptually the Frame is two vertical towers linked by a horizontal sky-bridge. To achieve the long spans and the thin “frame” look, engineers used a robust steel-and-concrete composite structure with internal bracing and large vertical cores to resist wind and seismic loads. The top bridge includes a glass-bottomed viewing deck, supported by the steel superstructure and braced to the towers. The design uses diagonal bracing and a stiff core arrangement so lateral loads (wind) are transferred safely into the foundations. (Summarised from technical descriptions and project documentation.) (https://www.dubaiframe-tickets.com)
Visitor numbers (what people actually do)
Popular attraction: since opening the Dubai Frame has been heavily visited. Authorities and Dubai Municipality reporting show that hundreds of thousands of people visit each half-year. For example, official reporting recorded 827,000 visits to Dubai Frame in the first half of 2024 (H1 2024). Earlier reporting noted similar H1 figures in prior years (H1 2023 ~884,000). These numbers demonstrate sustained high footfall. (dm.gov.ae)
Ticket price (official)
Official admission fees listed by Dubai Frame: Adults AED 50; Children (3–12) AED 20; under 3 free. (Special offers / combos sometimes change the effective price.) (Dubai Frame)
Estimated direct ticket revenue — a transparent worked estimate
Exact operating revenue for the Dubai Frame (including F&B, events, private hires) is not published publicly in detail, so the numbers below are a clear, conservative estimate based on visitor counts and the official ticket price. I’ll show the assumptions so you can judge.
Assumptions and conservative arithmetic:
Use a simple annualisation from H1 2024: H1 2024 visitors = 827,000, so a rough annual visitor estimate = 827,000 × 2 = 1,654,000 visitors per year (this assumes the second half is similar — realistic but not exact). (dm.gov.ae)
Use the official adult ticket price as a baseline AED 50 as the average paid per visitor (this ignores children discounts, free entries, group packages and combo passes which lower the average, and excludes additional income streams). (Dubai Frame)
Estimated annual ticket income (simple):
1,654,000 visitors × AED 50 = AED 82,700,000 per year (≈ USD 22.5 million at ~0.272 USD/AED).
This is a ballpark estimate of gross ticket takings only; net profit or contribution to GDP would be lower after operating costs, staff, maintenance, marketing, park fees, and municipal accounting. (Use this as an order-of-magnitude figure, not an audited financial statement.)
Role in the wider tourism economy
Tourism’s macro share: travel and tourism is a major sector for the UAE — official figures place the sector’s contribution around 9% of UAE GDP in 2022 (and other recent sources put tourism’s national share in double digits depending on the year and the method). Dubai—being the country’s leading tourism hub—receives a large slice of that activity. (Ministry of Economy)
What that means for Dubai Frame: while Dubai Frame is a high-profile landmark and generates meaningful ticket revenue (see the estimate above), its direct contribution to national GDP or to Dubai’s total tourism receipts is small in percentage terms — large monuments rarely contribute more than a fraction of a percent of an emirate-level economy on their own. Instead their economic value is both direct (tickets, events, retail) and indirect: they help attract tourists who spend on
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