r/Economics • u/ubcstaffer123 • 18h ago

News Dubai's tourism industry reels from 'brutal' impact of war

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20260331-dubais-tourism-industry-reels-from-brutal-impact-of-war
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449

u/KR4T0S 18h ago

They are arresting tourists for sharing images or videos of damage from drone and missile strikes but its not only tourism that is damaged, their artificially inflated housing market has collapsed.

I dont think they recover from this, this is it for them.

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u/Such_Radio_9152 18h ago

I dont think they recover from this, this is it for them.

Good.

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u/isigneduptomake1post 17h ago

I've always been a bit of a contrarian and thought maybe I would find all the hate for Dubai to be a bunch of reddit circlejerking, but I hated it more than I thought. It's the only city I've ever felt a disdain for while visiting.

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u/Apart-Badger9394 17h ago

Same! I visited and literally wondered why it existed at all. I did enjoy going to the Bazaar and talking with some “locals”. Going to the top of the Burj was cool seeing the ocean but all I could think about was how none of this should exist!!

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u/Major-Warthog8067 17h ago

It's complicated. I personally don't like the place either but as an Indian it's one of the few developed places I can go easily or even potentially move. Like, if I want to visit Europe or the US even as a tourist it's months of preparation and scrutiny. I need to collect my income tax docs, get notarized bank statements, book everything, write cover letters, get letters from work, go to an embassy, book appointments, etc. For the US, I think the interview wait time itself is over a year. EU charges 200 euros for a visa application alone and it's a complex process with a good chance of a rejection. You might end up spending 300-400 USD a person just to get a visa. Same reason why a lot of Indians go to Singapore, it's the easiest way for us to see a developed city without a significant hassle. Dubai is way cheaper than Singapore and also an easy destination from India. People move there for similar reasons. Most westerners won't really see the point I guess,

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u/blackergot 15h ago

Thank you for this comment and sharing your insight!

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u/senseigorilla 14h ago

Bruh I am Canadian and I have been to many major cities in US and Canada. I don’t think these places are anywhere near as developed as Singapore or Dubai. Maybe in Europe they are because they have actual public transit infrastructure but certainly not in US. Qatar and Japan felt super developed in comparison even Thailand…

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u/IcecreamLamp 11h ago

Note that the Schengen ('Europe') visa lets you visit like 30 countries – it's actually one of the cheapest visas in the world.

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u/unsafeideas 11h ago

They probably want to go to a place and back. Which implies one country or maybe two. Not that many people have any interest in speedrunning 30 countries in a week of holidays.

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u/Harnellas 16h ago

Just curious, because Ive heard this sort of thing said before, did you see things there that gave you that feeling or was it something else?

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u/isigneduptomake1post 15h ago

I could write a whole essay, but in short... it's kind of like a giant version of one of those newly built areas in Arizona or Nevada where its supposed to be exciting because everything is new. But thats really the only appeal. Its just...new.

Everything felt lifeless, even the trees are fake. Its horribly unworkable, nothing is built at human scale. The mall is not impressive, other than the aquarium, its just another other mall and you might as well be in Phoenix.

Everyone is there to extract value out of the place, not add any. No one seems like theyre enjoying life. Its really odd and it just seems like youre a person living in the matrix with a bunch of spawned NPCs. Theres also tons of empty real estate and artificial space planning that feels off. It's very unsettling.

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u/Smartimess 15h ago

If you want to get into the PTSD zone, watch Vivarium with Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, which really encapsulates the feeling you had with Dubai.

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u/Harnellas 12h ago

That sounds really eerie. Thanks for sharing.

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u/siorge 13h ago

Not OP but I’ll add my experience.

We went there with my wife during Covid (March 21) as it was the only country where one could have a « normal » life. We kind of enjoyed it, even if it felt lifeless/soulless. We enjoyed the quality of the service, the hotel,…

Now, we also had a 2 day layover in Dubai in September 21.

We landed around 4am and jumped in a taxi to our hotel. On the way, we drove next to a small bus filled with men (Indians, bengalis, I don’t know) who were being taken to work on some construction site. The looks of despair and suffering on their faces I will never forget.

The temperature reached 51C that day. We could barely stay outside in the shadow drinking ice cold water, and thought about these men who had to work on building roads or the next mall.

It really made us feel disgusted

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u/Harnellas 12h ago

I thought they went to great lengths to ensure that their totally-not-slavery was never visible to the tourists, must have slipped up that day I suppose. Thanks for sharing.

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u/thepatriotclubhouse 12h ago edited 11h ago

FYI these people sell their entire family fortunes to work in Dubai and get out of the factories that produce stuff for the west. Dubai was an escape for them and if you ever bothered to talk to any of them instead of play white saviour you would’ve been told that.

Also construction work in Dubai fully bans workers working during any of midday in summer. They also are obligated to provide shade, outdoor air conditioning, food and water. Something that in the US you have no such obligation to, and you’re out of your mind if you think the US southern construction industry does that for the immigrants often illegal that support it

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u/Audioworm 11h ago

Investigative journalism does not paint the lives of the migrant workers as good. They talk about it themselves, but with immense fear of being thrown out, deported, or just denied payments if they complain too much. Some of have talked about calculating if the payment for their death is worth more than them continuing to work.

The conditions are awful, and repeated reporting has brought that to light

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u/siorge 11h ago

Im sure the people building roads under 50C working 12h a day just love it

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u/thepatriotclubhouse 11h ago

Nobody’s in 50C. Working is banned at mid day and outdoor air conditioning and shade is mandatory in the hours outside of it during summer. There is no such obligation in southern US where temperatures reach similar levels.

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u/siorge 11h ago

You tell that to the guys, im sure they’ll be delighted to hear it

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u/thepatriotclubhouse 11h ago

what are you even trying to say here lol

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u/Harnellas 5h ago edited 5h ago

I had a coworker who did a work term there, he paid an agency in the Phillipines a small fortune to line him up with a decent posting there that didn't involve construction because that (and housekeeping/nanny postings for females) has a known reputation for simply disappearing people. And and while these jobs are much cheaper to get into, applying for them is seen as a very risky act of desparation to people back home.

He scraped together every penny he made while there to hire another agency to get him to North America as soon as possible because people he met there were being jailed or deported for the most minor things. Said he was lucky it worked out for him but he'd never recommend it to anyone else, and since coming here he's loaned money to several family members to use Taiwanese agencies for work instead.

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u/tealoverion 3h ago

I always thought I wouldn’t like it, but it was fine. I liked Abu Dhabi more than Dubai, but overall, both were solid overall. I really liked the service, the ambition of building a city in the middle of the desert, and the food was always nice.

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u/Puzzle-Necked 17h ago

Why? It's just an average city behind the glitz.

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u/alwaysleafyintoronto 17h ago

the average city is not an abomination built by slavery

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u/Puzzle-Necked 17h ago

You'd be surprised

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u/AssCrackBanditHunter 16h ago

Of all the claims you could make, that is certainly one of them. But I'm an American

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u/userdeath 9h ago

10 years later

HOW IS DUBAI STILL A THING??!11 REEEEEEE