The show will take place in a complex called the Millennium Dome at Greenwich, close to the world famous observatory. Built at a cost of over £750 million, the dome will be the centrepiece of the UK's millennium celebrations. An international icon and the largest building of its kind in the world, the dome will educate and entertain on a scale never seen before. As many as 12 million visitors from across the world are expected to visit the site.

Appropriately enough, London is witnessing a rash of new hotels with the country's top architects and designers putting their creative ideas to satisfy the customers. Transport system is simultaneously being spruced up. According to official estimates, the UK will be spending close to £4 billion preparing infrastructure for the purpose.

Aviation and tourism departments of the UK are, naturally, joining hands to make the millennium show a roaring success. British Airways, one of the participants in the show, is leaving nothing to chance. "The airline has already spruced itself to meet the situation," Rayana Sequeira of the British Airways told visiting journalists in London recently.

Prem Subramaniam, country manager of the British Tourist Authority in India, was more upbeat. "There is going to be a whole new world of entertainment, art and exhibitions in London."

Tour operators around the world are working out the Millennium Dome packages for tourists for the whole of next year.

A visit to the site in London recently revealed that the dome will offer the visitors a unique opportunity to encounter the best in new British style, design, architecture and entertainment. There will be 14 theme zones encompassing various fields of human activity. The central performance area, with a capacity for 10,000 spectators, will be the setting for a live show repeated throughout the day. Ranged around it in varied settings will be the exhibition zones exploring the choices facing mankind in the 21st century and beyond.

The tourists will interact with exhibits focussing on the past, present and future work of art, learning, rest, play, body, mind, belief, local, national and global environment. The body zone, for example, will offer a walk through the world's largest representation of the human form and explore how the human machine works and the impact of lifestyle and medical science. The mind zone aims at explaining the working of human brain.

Visitors can interact with intelligent robots and find out how the brain responds to sensory input. The mobility zone will be of particular interest to those in the travel industry which will explain how smarter travel solutions will transform our journeys in the future.

The spirit zone, similarly, is dedicated to the different kinds of faith and belief which underpin society. There is a quiet place for reflection within the zone.

The communication zone will explain various new approaches, technologies and ideas to help people to communicate more effectively for a more fulfilling life into the 21st century.

But the millennium show will feature absorbing items like acrobatics, trapeze artists, music and spectacular visual effects. Most of the action will take place 50 metre off the ground. On December 31, there will be the spectacular opening ceremony that will be telecast on TV all around the world.