TAKE that, Dubai!

It may look like something out of Star Wars, but this is actually Korea’s latest tourism project, set to rival the extravagance on show in Dubai.

At $264 billion, the ambitious plan would see the creation of a gigantic city on the islands of Yongyu-Muui in the port of Incheon, close to Incheon International Airport.

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Spanning 80 square kilometres, its designers claim the 8City project would be the largest single tourism plan in the world. That’s if they can manage to pull it off.

It would include a “megastrip” which, at 200 metres high, 880m wide and 3.3 kilometres long, would be the world’s largest single architectural unit.

An “inner circle” would also be built, comprising of a tubular 14-kilometre building.

The city would be home to luxury hotels, condominiums, casinos and theme parks as well as shopping centres, a concert hall and Formula One racing track.

For those seeking something out of the ordinary, there would also be a medical tourism “healing town” and entertainment “hallyu” town.

The 5.7 million passengers passing through Incheon International Airport every year will be targeted, along with Chinese tourists, a head of the project developer said.



"It will become the world's top city that has the creativity of Dubai, convention centers and casinos of Las Vegas and Macau, as well as the shopping centers and financial hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore," Park Seong-Hyun, vice chairman of EIGHTCITY Co., the project's developer, said.

The project, scheduled for completion by 2030, will be funded by the city and investors. The developer has already secured $2.8 billion from South Korean investors and $1 billion from the UK's Sanbar Development Corporation, to help get the project off the ground.

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