The gigantic moon hotel that could be built in Dubai

The team behind Moon World Resorts thinks so too — sort of.

They want to build a series of giant dome-like hotels that resemble the moon and sit right here on planet Earth. To be precise, in Dubai.

Each sphere will be a 360-degree recreation of the moon on a grand scale, complete with realistic-looking craters and texture. Each recreated moon could be 224 meters high with a circumference of 2042 feet, depending on location and building permits.

Canada-based entrepreneur Michael R. Henderson, co-founder of Moon World Resorts, tells CNN Travel that the core of the project is for the moon to be a “recognizable brand.”

“Seven and a half billion people know it, everyone loves it,” he says.

Go Global

Each Moon World Resort will include all the usual facilities in a luxury hotel, such as a spa, pictured here, but with a moon twist.

Courtesy of Moon World Resorts Inc.

According to Henderson, each Moon World Resort will be “a very luxurious and contemporary, fully integrated destination resort, with many components that one would already know” – for example, a convention center, restaurants, spa, each with a moon turn.

Artistic renderings include spaceship-style interiors and themed entertainment — including what Henderson considers to be the highlight of the attraction, an experience that mimics what it’s like to walk on the moon.

“We’ll give you the opportunity to walk on what you think is the lunar surface in your lifetime,” Henderson says.

Moon World Resorts has been two decades in the making, a timeline that, according to Henderson, who previously founded a medical services company, matches the slower pace associated with space tourism in general.

So it could be in a Moon World Resort nightclub.

Courtesy of Moon World Resorts Inc.

The project comes with “huge technical challenges,” Henderson explains, but he and co-founder Sandra G. Matthews are working with independent engineers and architects to realize the concept.

“We basically have a plethora of groups around the world that we just bring in, when we need them. But once the project actually starts building, of course they’ll be in a certain region,” he says.

The long-term goal is to build four Moon resorts, one in North America, one in Europe, one in the Middle East and North Africa, and one in Asia. Moon World Resorts is a licensing company, so Henderson is considering licensing each Moon World Resort to licensees with cash.

The UAE, and Dubai in particular, has been designated by the company as a “frontrunner” for the opening of the first Moon World resort. Henderson says this is because the UAE is “very popular for tourists” and home to “a lot of infrastructure projects”.

However, Henderson also suggests that “other options are popping up,” who are unwilling to share for the time being.

moon fun

Co-founder Michael Henderson suggests Moon World Resorts could be a more affordable alternative to space tourism.

Courtesy of Moon World Resorts Inc.

Henderson says the Moon World Resort experience will be significantly cheaper, suggesting that signing up to walk the resort’s “moon surface” will cost $500.

Cost could also prevent futuristic projects like Moon World Resorts from ever moving past the conceptual stage, but Henderson suggests the licensing model makes the project viable.

“It’s not so much the search for capital,” he explains. “The goal for a licensor, like us, is to find the licensee. And once you’ve secured the licensee, you have the money for the projects that are already there — because we’re not talking about small businesses, these will be large international companies.”

Henderson hopes that the first licensee, expected to invest $5 billion in the build, will be secured by the end of 2022. He predicts that the first Moon World resort will open five years later, in 2027.

Henderson hopes that each Moon World Resort will become a destination in its own right. Even when people aren’t staying there or checking out the space-age facilities, he imagines travelers just going to stare at the building.

He cites architectural structures such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, or the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, as inspiration on this front,

“Obviously people like to see the representation of what’s going on inside. But I think a lot of people will be excited when you look up at the world’s largest sphere — I think that’s going to be the ghost,” he say.