Interesting to note how the man clamouring for a better hotel uses size as a proxy for quality: paraphrasing slightly, "if only we had a massive hotel, more rich people would come and feel at ease!".
These days one would probably demand the very opposite.
This is quite common in parts of the world that are just getting to a modicum of wealth. For example, I landed to the new Istanbul Airport a few days ago. Its main premise, the way it's pitched to the (largely indifferent) public, is that it's the largest airport in the world, one that is the size of Manhattan.
Meanwhile, I spent four hours coming into the actual city from there. It's dreadful.
It seems like the vision is to turn IST into a Dubai-style mega hub for flights between APAC and EMEA & the North American East Coast. Whether Turkish Airlines actually has the operational chops to compete with Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, etc. without massive ongoing subsidies is an open question.
The move is definitely way worse for people actually traveling into Istanbul. The metro expansions to the airport can’t come soon enough, but even on a metro the trip will be pretty long.
Though that's pretty unavoidable if you need to add a larger airport to a city whose existing airport is space constrained. You often have to go pretty far out to get to lots of near-empty space where you can site the new airport.
That is true, though it’s still shockingly poor planning to open the airport and close the old one before the bullet train interlink starts to serve the new one.
Urban planning took a back seat because they rushed to open it before the municipal elections. Fortunately the voters are not amused by the irony anymore.
These days one would probably demand the very opposite.