Why do 80 million people a year visit the US$20 billion Dubai Mall?

Dubai does not do anything small.

The desert city has the world’s tallest building, palm-tree-shaped artificial islands that fan out along the coast, the world’s largest indoor theme park, and, soon, the world’s first rotating skyscraper.

And of course, who could forget the malls?

Dubai has about 65 malls in a city of just over three million people, with 10 more on the way. For some, the malls are the most iconic part of Dubai. And no mall is more iconic than The Dubai Mall.

Opened 10 years ago, The Dubai Mall is the second-largest mall in the world by total land area after being surpassed by the New Century Global Center in China in 2013.

To call it a mall is an understatement. Aside from more than 1,200 stores, the mall has its own neighbourhoods – like a high-fashion district akin to Fifth Avenue, and The Village, an open-air street – as well as hundreds of restaurants, cinemas, a luxury hotel, an Olympic-size ice skating rink, a virtual-reality theme park, and an aquarium. The entire complex cost US$20 billion to build.

Despite talk in the United States of a “retail apocalypse” shutting down America’s malls, no such danger appears to be in sight for Dubai.

Emaar Malls, The Dubai Mall’s developer, said recently that the property had seen over 80 million visitors annually for the past four years, making it the most visited mall in the world.

Dubai is climbing in the rankings of the most visited cities in the world – it is currently fourth, with a projected 16.7 million visitors this year, according to Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index. And as US News & World Report named The Dubai Mall is the number one attraction in the city, that ranking is likely to climb.

So as a first time visitor to Dubai, it was a must visit.