Dubai was planning to move the Queen Elizabeth 2 (ex)cruise liner to South Africa. You may have heard about a UAE company called Dubai World? Of course you have. They are the owner of the QE 2 (via their investment arm Istithmar World). They bought bought the QE2 in 2007. The plan was to convert the huge ship into a luxury hotel which was supposed to be docked on the right side of the Palm Jumeirah. After the financial trouble with Dubai World the company planned to sell the QE2 to South Africa, where they new owner wanted to use it as a hotel during the World Cup.

Dubai World has to get some money, even though they received a financial lifeline from Abu Dhabi recently. And they might have to sell some assets for that. So Istithmar is not commenting if they are going to sell the Queen Elizabeth 2 eventually or if it stays in Dubai. The plan is officially to “maximize the value of the luxury ocean liner. We consider a number of options for that”. No word of a sale thereafter yet. So lets just hope the Dubai World managers can find a way to keep that beauty here in Dubai, after all it would help in attracting more visitors to Dubai - and they also bring in cash