The L.A. Times has a very
interesting article about how Dubai is the new Las Vegas/Hong Kong. Dubai is part of the United Arab Emirates and from all accounts it floats on an actual sea of money. Gas is cheap. Women work in business and are treated well. And it's turning into one of the hottest tourist attractions in the world with luxury hotels, mega shopping malls and indoor skiing.
In a place where a gallon of gasoline is almost as cheap as a liter of bottled water in the U.S., anything seems possible.
With the world's tallest skyscraper and most opulent hotel, plus solar-powered parking meters, desalinated seawater from the taps, indoor alpine skiing and a new archipelago of artificial islands, the desert city of Dubai has transformed itself so completely that it now figures as one of the Eastern Hemisphere's great, cosmopolitan centers, on a par with Singapore and Hong Kong.
But wedged on the Persian Gulf between Abu Dhabi and Sharjah (two of the seven mini-states that make up the United Arab Emirates), it is off the radar of many Westerners as a destination. When it's thought of at all, it's considered faraway, exotic and possibly dangerous, although the State Department has issued no warnings on it and the agency's website says crime is not a problem.
After passing through Dubai International Airport several times on my way from Europe to the Far East, I finally decided to see the city-in-the-making during the Dubai Shopping Festival, which began Thursday and continues through Feb. 24. The fest celebrates the city's favorite pastime with fireworks, concerts and up to 75% reductions on designer fashions, jewelry, electronics and curios from all over the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The shopping was grand, the winter weather not unlike that in L.A. (summers, though, are much hotter) and I never worried about my safety.
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About $400 billion worth of tourism projects are expected to be launched by 2010 in hopes of drawing 15 million visitors a year. (Las Vegas, which attracted 38.9 million visitors last year, plans to spend only about 10% that amount on tourism.) Dubai's projects include a public light rail system that is to be built in a four-year sprint, an air-conditioned outdoor Universal Studios Dubailand, a one-of-a-kind DreamWorks Animation theme park, a Tiger Woods-designed golf course and an underwater hotel.
Dubai is in the midst of a building boom. Pictured is an architect's rendering of the proposed Dubai Towers, which look like something out of an SF movie. The underwater hotel project sounds really amazing. and what's not to like about a giant Shopping Festival? You can find information about trip planning here.
The L.A. Times has a very
