The United Arab Emirates play a primary role in the world oil industry (they are fourth in order of importance) and their black gold resources are the main foundation for the country’s growth. The contribution of the oil sector to the United Arab Emirates’ GDP amounts to a good 28%.
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi alone contains 10% of world oil reserves (98 billion barrels). Trade is also experiencing a genuine boom thanks to the creation, on the part of each Emirate, of Free Zones to encourage businesses to establish themselves in this area.
The Emirate of Dubai has become a nerve centre for trade and has recently consolidated its position in that it is a key pathway for trade between the East and the West. It has also been defined as the business capital of the Middle East, transforming itself also into a great tourist attraction.
Since the English left this land and the seven Emirates united to form a single country in 1971, the United Arab Emirates have come a long way, achieving a simply astonishing standard of living in less than 40 years. Since then, the deserts sands have been substituted by green spaces and by buildings and mosques (masjids) of impressive beauty, roads and motorways of great impact and infrastructures, also for hospitality, which attract ever more tourists from all continents.
At the moment, 75% of the inhabitants of Dubai (around three million) belong to 180 different nationalities, a highly remarkable melting pot which, in several respects, evokes the great metropolises of the West. In effect, the choice of living in this exceptional city does not derive solely from the excellent professional opportunities that it offers – though these do play an important role - rather, it is founded on the desire to enjoy a privileged lifestyle, in a modern environment devoid of crime, which is well organised and has a high level of functionality and technology, while also respecting ancient tradition and the thousand years old history of the Arabian Peninsula.
Not just a place which is ideal for work, but also an ideal location for free time and sport, which for years has been in first place, thanks also to the important manifestations at world level which take place there (water sports, golf, tennis).
Where there is a land and a sea which are generous, where there is history and culture, where there is a strong desire to make the most of a country which has services, infrastructures and well-aimed economic policies – in that place there is tourism. In fact, in recent decades, Dubai in particular and all of the Arab Emirates in general have dedicated themselves to tourism with competence and determination, well aware that success in this sector is due above all to the quality of receptive structures, the organisation and efficiency of tourist operators and to their sense of hospitality.
Noteworthy among recent initiatives is Madinat Jumeirah, a water complex which aims to place the historical and cultural heritage of the region in the foreground. Palm Island, on the other hand, the most recent creature of Dubai, is a work of engineering that smacks almost of science fiction: an island in the form of a palm tree, constructed on the sea, it will be the second man-made creation to be visible from the moon. It houses 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels and numberless business complexes.
Moreover, mention should be made of the equally important Burj Al Arab, the tallest hotel in the world and one of the few to have seven stars, which is unlike any other anywhere, having been constructed on an artificial island at a distance of over a kilometre from the coast. Yet if Burj Al Arab represents the tops in hospitality in the United Arab Emirates, it is just as important to mention the thousands of other hotels in all categories (mostly tending towards luxury, however), distributed throughout the seven Emirates, to which new structures are added every year, thanks to a tourist demand which is experiencing considerable growth.
Photograph provided courtesy of Imre Solt