Dubai Faces Festering Tourism Challenges Beyond Pandemic
Photo Credit: The view of Palm Jumeirah island from Jumeirah Beach. Getty / Arvin Mantilla
Skift Take
Dubai has spent significant capital billing itself up as a progressive destination that offers uninterrupted tourism and entertainment, but now reality may have caught up to the emirate.
The shimmering coastline of Dubai’s tree-shaped Palm Jumeirah island is known for its posh apartments, glitzy hotels, and upscale restaurants—but the lights in this exclusive enclave, like much of the city, have started to dim.
That’s because Dubai’s economy, built on the hopes of globalization, was on thin ice long before the pandemic.
In 2018 and 2019, the image-conscience emirate had reportedly kept the lights on in some emptied skyscrapers and hotels to maintain its reputation as an “instagramable” destination.“Through the medium-term, it could very well be touch-and-go for Dubai,” said Varsha Koduvayur, senior research analyst covering the Gulf states for Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The Covid shock will affect the leadership’s thinking and spur Dubai’s leaders to look towards building up other sectors that might (to the extent possible) be more pandemic-proof.”
Although Dubai seemed to have handled the chaos of Covid-19 well during the early months of the crisis, that quickly changed around New Year’s when tourists and locals hit the pubs and parties without face-masks or social distancing measures.
The city had welcomed international visitors too soon, with about 300,000 people traveling between the UAE and the U.K. in November and December alone. That’s when Dubai was accused by the global community of being a “super-spreader” of the virus abroad.
On February 1,
