Dubai
"Bye-Bye, Dubai": The tarnish is showing on this once golden tourist destination
!["Bye-Bye, Dubai": The tarnish is showing on this once golden tourist destination](http://www.eturbonews.com/files/imagecache/fullpage/28c_60.jpg ""Bye-Bye, Dubai": The tarnish is showing on this once golden tourist destination")
Dubai has been slapped down. Half of all construction projects are on hold, the stock market value has tumbled 70%, and banks aren't lending. The government is doing everything it can to make the news seem less dire, but word has been flooding out.
We all knew a little about how bad things were there, but Dubai's crash went mainstream a few week ago, when the New York Times ran a bruising story that showed the world a side of the United Arab Emirates that had been ignored during the hyper coverage of its ostentatious wealth. The paper reminded everyone that Dubai runs debtor's prisons. Expats are so terrified of being locked up for owing money on their condos that they're fleeing the crippled city in droves, some taping notes of apology to their Beemers in the airport parking lots as they fly for safety. With the country ending 55,000 residency visas in January alone, nearly twice the rate of a year ago, foreigners are given no choice but to run like hell.
Debtor's prisons? What the Dickens?
Mainstream American observers were outraged and called for a boycott of such a draconian government while a major American tour operator, IsramWorld, which run trips to 56 countries pulled the plug on further tours to Dubai. A new mantra rose among tourism leaders: "Bye-bye, Dubai."
Since then, Dubai's tourism reputation has crumbled. The country refused to grant a visa to an Israeli tennis player who was booked for a major tournament sponsored by Barclays, setting off a firestorm of international criticism. A second Israeli player was offered a visa after the extent of the damage became clear and the Tennis Channel dropped its coverage, but now Dubai risks being fired as the host of the tournament in the future.
And the body slams continue. Dubai got some more bad press last week over a book fair, when literary luminary Margaret Atwood refused to attend its Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature because, she thought, a book depicting a gay sheik was banned. She has since agreed to appear by video link from Canada, but the damage had already been done to Dubai's image.
The famous Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner, retired last year by Cunard, was supposed to become a floating luxury hotel, but now it looks like she may end up on the scrap heap instead of with a velvet rope around her. Plans for Dubai versions of four American theme parks, including a Busch Gardens and a SeaWorld to be built on an artificial island shaped like Shamu, are now on ice. The Palm Trump Hotel and Tower is dead, as are plans to construct a building that's one kilometer tall. Dubai already has the world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, although it's largely empty -- a tombstone to the city's high life.
Only Universal Studios is plowing ahead with its Dubailand plans, at least on paper, adding a sub-license with Sesame Street last week that promises three tie-in attractions. (In America, competitor SeaWorld contracts with those Muppets.) A completion date for the theme park, though, has been conspicuously absent from recent press releases.
It's not like Dubai is a destination that works hard to help visitors immerse themselves in Arab culture. The principal attractions there are shopping malls and beaches, and if you're traveling there to learn much about the place, you'll be out of luck. So it's not like striking Dubai off your wish list will deprive you of much culture. It's also not going anywhere, at least not as long as it's still got crude oil.
I was always dubious about Dubai. How you could build an insta-city in imitation of the world's great ones if all you had for building blocks was extreme wealth and expensive tastes? Dubai always seemed to me like an urban version of Dorian Gray. It seemed to be an air-cooled, marbled shell, and now that it's cracked, we're finding out what its insides were really made of.
Comments
As a Professor of International Tourism for 25 years and having delivered content in Dubai, I was very impressed how a desert based tourism destination could gain media attention almost overnight. With money to spend, cheap land and labor and an over-active imagination, it seemed to me that we were witnessing a new global standard for Glamour Destinations. Yet, given my focus on Sustainability, I always questioned what was going to bring people back to Dubai after their first visit, unless it was real estate. I never saw much effort to display the native culture unless it was the translation of traditional trade in the shopping malls. The too hot summer sands and tepid waters never appealed to the beach bum side of my personality. The recycled water generated through obscene use of energy never tasted that good
I do not think Dubai will disappear as a future tourism destination but I do hope that this change in media attention will provide a wakeup call to its destination managers. It is not just money, bigger is better, build it and they will come - attitudes that make a tourism destination sustainable. Key is what you can you experience at Dubai that you cannot get anywhere else? So far, I do not think Dubai tourism stakeholders have the capacity to really consider this question.
I currently live on the Palm and Dubai hasn't changed since the spur of all building. Every day I hear people saying "people are fleeing Dubai. Dubai is empty!" Untrue! Every day go to work, I see the same people, the same busy malls, the same packed Cafes, Nothing has changed when it comes to daily life.
I just came across that article which finally proofs to be so pinpointing what's all about - or the lack of it - Dubai!
Dubai understood to make the World believe it's a democratic western orientated country. In fact it's the opposite: A crank country under the rule of Sharia which is lead by a a lot of wealthy but abusive nut cases. All its wealth has become just window dressing, it's leaders have no clue in view to human rights but build their wealth on the bones of abused expats from India, Pakistan, Philippines etc..
I am just waiting for the news: Dubai's Palm island/World and Burj collapsed......the sand has given in ;-)
I live in dubai and its nothing like the article says. Many people are jealous with a desert city becoming advanced and reconised. Grow up people......Dubai is a wonder city....come and live in dubai.....its safer than most western cities
Dubai is a piece of gaudy cheap costume jewellery that fell into a toilet. No one wants to reach in and get it out, because now it's covered in excrement. Everyone's now remembering how ugly it was, and wondering why they bought it in the first place. Dubai is now going to be 'flushed'.
No one will invest in Dubai, because since the real estate bubble has burst, its sole reason for existence (real-estate flipping) is gone.
All that is left is heat, miles of sand, empty buildings, a corrupt government, and a few Russian Mafia.
It's time for the sand to reclaim Dubai. It should make an impressive set of ruins for a few years.
Now that the bubble has finally burst, I guess the writer of this article has been vindicated at long last.
I think writer forget to write positive points. I can see the international is targeting Dubai and its real estate. Its pity that people are think like this. They have started best automated metro service plus burj khalifa has been built as well with breaking all the records of tallest buildings. Think positive you will get positive results instead of telling others about the down fall of other countries. What about the situation in US ? People are losing jobs and getting homeless cant even their debts
Looks like the article has been vindicated. As I read more bout this, I think Dubai will be back again to being a desert. Hype only takes things so far.
I did not write this to be rude just to point out that everyone makes mistakes. As the saying goes, don't throw stones if your house is made of glass
Manager jobs abu dhabi
i think that the palm island is aload of rubbish man they said its like sinking every mounth you know if allah swt wanted palm islands outside dubai he would have made the world like it it just shows they day of judment is comin nearer honestly conom like makin it out of sand is gonna work cause the sand is not stable .
comon man made island as if the sand aint stable to its gonna keep on washining away
MAN MADE ISLAND rubbish
Dubai Will surprise us all once you see that the situation improves and Dubai will be again moving towards recovery and success, as dubai has a very successful story and will keep rising
The hospitality industry in Dubai has shown an increase of 5% in the summer as Dubai is targeting mass tourism and now will attract the young and the old the rich and the famous to visit is and view it’s amazing infrastructure
Im Sorry to Hear This Kumar....
dear fakir... u are completely wrong. i am an australian from indian origin. i had to show my passport to get into some of the pubs in dubai. i lived in dubai for 2 years and can tell its the most racist place in the world.
dubai was biult on blood money from slaves... i can bet.. its destined to fallmuch lower and lower... thats what happens when millions of lips pray silently for its downfall. remember... their prayers are really pwerful and ur sheik maktooms luck cant protect u any more// these towelheads deserve to die in shit
Situations in Dubai are still going down :( ....
The Author of this article is a disgrace, how could he write such an article... i can gurantee he has never stepped foot in Dubai, in a matter a fact the whole middleeast.... 2nd The Burj Dubai is under construction and hand over is per schedule... 09/09/2009 just as the metro they are building...
that you had forgot to mention...
Sure Dubai has been effected by the economic crisis in tandem with the rest of the world. Perhaps the onslaught of negativity is a by-product of Dubai's arrogance, its self implied immunity to the crisis and the brainless opulance on which projects were built. "lets spend $20m on a hotel launch while hundreds of employees are being laid off- within the same group"...built on an island by a company who's employees are blacklisted for property finance. A real estate sector driven by greed and supported by poor fiscal measures...
Alike the wallstreet traders, for whom no sympathy is felt, those wrapped up in the feeding frenzy of Dubai have been cut back down to size...welcome to the real world.
Could you please ask Mr. Cochran which city has not felt the wrath of this economical downturn? Just because Dubai is feeling the pinch doesn't make it the posterchild of failure. I am going to ask a very painful question to the glorious city of New York. Nearly a decade after the horrifying act of 9/11, what has the city done in place of the twin towers? Nothing! In that same time Dubai has become a byword for richness and oppulance. As for debacles, may I remind London of the Millenium Dome?
I did not write this to be rude just to point out that everyone makes mistakes. As the saying goes, don't throw stones if your house is made of glass
Having resided in the Middle East for 18 years and been a resident of Dubai for 7 years I cannot count the number of times I have seen a foreign article mocking Dubai’s growth over the last five years. Well now the world has it and people seem to be so content and conceited about the recent ‘downfall in Dubai’. As with the majority of emerging markets, volatility will indeed remain a trait of Dubai's economy. Dubai however is currently experiencing a normal cycle in real estate in sync with the world financial crisis. Although agreeably some developments have seemed over the top, what Dubai has achieved in such a short span is quite remarkable. Whilst real estate has been a vehicle of growth, Dubai’s economy also involves trade and logistics, professional services and tourism. One cannot acquire infrastructure without making substantial investment and this cycle is a well established phenomenon in economics. Asset values have plummeted and there is a shortage of liquidity globally which of course makes it difficult for a country to refinance its debt. There are indeed considerable challenges and these are difficult times. Other countries around the world show empathy for each other at a time like this whilst articles like this publish exaggerated and snooty articles about Palm Jumeirah sinking, cockroaches oozing out of hotel taps, Dubai being a ghost town, the QE2 being cancelled and Burj Dubai being empty as expected. FYI Palm Jumeirah is not sinking, cockroaches are not part of Dubai’s superior hospitality service, there is still irritating traffic every morning and evening, Burj Dubai quite rightly is still empty as it has not been completed yet and the QE2 is simply delayed.
Booms never last forever and a correction was inevitable and needed. Such declines in real estate are however a positive indication for the emirate as living will now be affordable for residents. This is a very attractive prospect for residents still living here and is also a probable reason for the capacious amounts of expatriate C.V.s flooding into Dubai on a daily basis as people desperate to escape the financial turmoil in their own country still aspire to secure employment here.
My feelings and thoughts mirror Dubai Resident. As an expat living in Dubai since 11 years, I can lay claim to having seen the city grow from an almost zero to hero.
Sure, development took off vertically and some big risks were taken to reap potentially big rewards but as a city-state, Dubai has only done what private conglomerates can hope to achieve, not public-funded, red tape wrapped Governments around the world. Better the lives of its citizens (sometimes at the cost of us expats), put the region on the world map, invite bold new ideas, innovate, generate employment for hundereds of thousands ...
The same pundits who have turned against Dubai's 'spectacular' climb-down once filled reams with print in praise. Show me a company, a city or a country that hasn't been affected by the global recession and I'll show you a braggart.
Ever thought that the reason the Burj Dubai stands largely empty is because it is still being built? It doesn't open until late this year.
When the QE2 was bought, they always said it would be a 3 year project to do the refit, so no one is expecting to see it completed any time soon.
Your article reads like you have never visited Dubai. Culture may not be obvious - and there's not as much as places like the UK - but it's here. And having been to the US about 10 times over the years, it doesn't exactly drip with culture either. But it doesn't make me like the place any less or put me off visiting again.
Dubai is not perfect and has its problems for sure. But don't write opinion and dress it all as fact.
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