A Remarkable Turnaround

At the start of 2010 it looked like the economic crisis was going to claim one of the biggest fishes of all. Dubai, one of the richest states in the world, appeared to be going into economic meltdown and required a significant financial bailout from its wealthy neighbors in Abu Dhabi.

For the first few months of 2010, Dubai was remarkably quiet. After all the pomp and ceremony surrounding the opening of the biggest building in the world, we saw remarkably little of Dubai on our television screens. During that pause there were some big decisions made in the state, and is now firmly on the path to economic recovery.

One of the reasons Dubai suffered so badly during the recession was the extent to which it relied on foreign tourism. Dubai is one of the least oil-rich of the middle-Eastern states and accordingly has spent its oil revenues making it one of the top tourist destinations in the world, when the recession hit, the decline in tourism affected Dubai more than almost all of its neighbours, but now things are recovering, so too is the state.

Two projects in particular give evidence of Dubai’s recovery and ambition. The first is the massive skiing complex known as Ski Dubai. The construction covers 22,500 square metres and has consistent, high quality snow all the year round. It has the world’s first indoor black run, although admittedly it cannot possibly be as long as a mountain run, it has a 90 metre long quarter-pipe and the largest snow park in the world (it’s over 3,000 square metres). The scope and ambition of the project has to be seen to be believed, and its location right next to the Mall of the Emirates makes it one of the major attractions in Dubai.

The second incredible project is the plan by the Palazzo Versace hotel to create a fully air-conditioned beach. A network of pipes running under the sand will suck the heat out of the surrounding ground and a plan is also in place to have enormous fans blowing a gentle breeze over the complex. Even the swimming pool is going to be refrigerated!

Dubai is quite simply an amazing place, it is unlike any other state or region on earth, and it is unrivalled when it comes to the sheer amount of different things to do that are crammed into one, relatively small quarter of the Middle-East. Before the recession nearly 1million British tourists flew out to Dubai every year, and with companies like DialAFlight offering cheap flights to Dubai it surely won’t be long before those sorts of figures are repeated.