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Since it became one of the world’s first travel destinations to open up to tourism, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has been touted as the perfect place to vacation during a pandemic. According to analysts, the city-state could not afford a different behavior, because the virus shook the foundations of its economy.
Impressive with its impressive shopping malls, ultra-fast construction and crowds of foreign workers, Dubai was built on the faith of the promise of globalization, based primarily on the aviation, leisure and entertainment and commerce sectors. All suffered a severe virus hit.
Now the stagnant emirate of big dreams has been overwhelmed by reality. As the tourist season progressed, the number of coronavirus cases reached unprecedented levels. The number of new cases per day has almost tripled in the last month. This has forced Great Britain to close the travel corridor with Dubai. However, given the emerging economic crisis, the city does not close. It is true that some restrictions have already been adopted.
The Dubai Tourism Department announced on Thursday an immediate end to all live entertainment in hotels and restaurants.
This decision was made the day after the hospitals’ decision to postpone all unplanned operations due to the influx of coronavirus patients.
Such measures finally had to be taken after a few months of praise from Dubai that the city had managed to handle the health crisis well, making it the ideal place for a safe vacation. During that time, the number of new diseases began to grow in geometric progression. Local authorities now had to take tough measures.
While the number of cases has risen dramatically across the United Arab Emirates, so far Dubai has pretended to be an ideal oasis where weary tourists in their home countries could escape quarantine, the AP writes. Since resuming all its operations in the spring, this shopping and entertainment center has successfully refrained from any restrictions that could limit the economy, which is primarily based on aviation, the hotel business and retail.
Despite the fact that the masks must be worn indoors, life in the city more or less resembled that of before the pandemic. Bands, dancers, and DJs continued to perform in bars and clubs, entertaining guests from a safe distance. Hotel occupancy increased to 70 percent in December. and almost reached the holiday level of 2019.
On the New Year weekend alone, Dubai International Airport received more than 70,000 passengers. passengers.
Although there are no plans yet to close bars and restaurants, Dubai spokesmen say new entertainment passes will not yet be issued to ensure “public health and safety.”
In a statement distributed to business partners, the Dubai Department of Tourism says the ban applies to group live performances at restaurants, bars and beach clubs, and that private parties and weddings of up to two hundred guests will continue as before. .
The circulated report states that non-compliance will lead to “serious retaliation”, without further details. It is not announced when the entertainment sector could return to normal.
“Dubai’s economy is like a house of cards. Its competitive advantage is being in a place where the rules don’t apply,” explains Matthew Page, a non-permanent fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Although most countries have not welcomed tourists from the UK for fear of a much faster-spreading strain of the virus found in that country, Dubai, home to some 240,000 British expatriates, has still kept its doors wide open. couple for tourists. Emirates flew into London Heathrow International Airport five times a day.
The new strain of the virus soon reached the United Arab Emirates. But that reality TV show and the football stars didn’t deter them from escaping the British quarantine and the wind in Britain to the bars and beaches of Dubai.
Images of pre-pandemic fun have spread to British tabloid publications. After receiving a negative reaction, Instagram influencers caught at loud yacht parties soon declared their trips “necessary.”
Dubai has rejoiced with the influx of tourists. Hotel occupancy jumped to 71 percent in December, according to data analytics company STR. The London-Dubai route became the world’s busiest in the first week of January, according to aviation data analytics company OAG.
“People are already plagued by this pandemic,” said Iris Sabellano of the Dubai-based travel agency Al Arabi. The woman added that most of her customers were forced to self-quarantine when they were diagnosed with coronavirus on arrival or before departure.
Passengers from countries on the list of selected countries are not required to take the pre-trip test, but everyone at Dubai airport must do so.
“As vaccines have already appeared, they feel that the situation we are in is not the end of the world, they are not going to die,” explained Sabellano.
For the long-distance relatives of those killed by COVID-19, Emirates offers to pay $ 1,800 (around € 1,483) to help cover the funeral.
It seems that as the outbreak worsens, the influx of tourists should weaken. Tens of thousands of Israeli tourists, following a normalization agreement between the two states, have disappeared due to the new quarantine rules. The decision to suspend visa-free travel between Israel and the United Arab Emirates until July came into effect on Monday. Britain’s decision to introduce mandatory 10-day self-isolation for returnees from Dubai threatens to destroy what remains of the tourism sector.
“The British make up an extremely significant proportion of tourists and investors in Dubai. By blocking this flow, the city would face total catastrophe,” said David Tarsh, a spokesman for travel data analytics company ForwardKeys.
British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wrote on Twitter that the government’s decision was prompted by the latest data on the coronavirus situation in the United Arab Emirates. However, the data is limited, mainly only the daily number of new cases. The United Arab Emirates does not release information on outbreaks or hospital stays.
An intensive test campaign is underway in the United Arab Emirates. According to data from Tuesday, more than 260,000 people were registered in the country. coronavirus cases and more than 750 deaths.
On Tuesday, a large number of cars crashed into a mobile station on the edge of the Dubai desert to await a test. A security guard at an American hospital in Dubai with a temporary coronavirus testing tent in the parking lot said the wait time had been extended to more than two hours. At the invitation of the evening prayer, at least 80 people lined up in the tent.
Analysts estimate the unique demographic situation in the UAE to be around 90 percent. the newcomers, most of whom are young, healthy workers, have protected staffed hospitals from congestion. For the same reason, mortality remained low at 0.3 percent.
However, this did not reassure Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s more conservative neighbor and the country’s capital. Abu Dhabi has kept the closed border with Dubai free without explanation despite promises to open it before Christmas. Everyone arriving in Abu Dhabi must report a negative coronavirus test.
Relations between Dubai, which has a strong service sector, and Abu Dhabi, rich in oil, could become strained. During the financial crisis of 2009, Abu Dhabi had to rescue Dubai and provide $ 20 billion. $ 16.49 billion in financial assistance. This time, given the global drop in oil prices, it is unclear if Dubai can expect another monetary injection.
Even before the pandemic, the economy of Dubai due to the volatility of the real estate market, whose value since 2014 the increase fell by 30 percent, moved towards the decrease. The emirate and its network of government-related facilities face billions of dollars in debt payments. The government has already rushed to help Emirates. Last year, they received 2 billion. dollars (about 1.65 billion euros) in financial aid. Other indebted entertainment, leisure and tourism companies may also need help, especially since events like the World’s Fair did not take place last year and were postponed.
According to rating agency S&P Global, Dubai’s debt burden is around 148 percent. gross domestic product if state-related industries are included.
Under pressure, authorities are using vaccines as the only way to control the outbreak. The front pages of every state-affiliated newspaper are full of stories about mass vaccinations.
The United Arab Emirates currently hosts the second fastest vaccination campaign in the world, second only to Israel in this regard. The country, which offers the Chinese company Sinopharm the vaccine to all its residents over the age of 16, says it wants to vaccinate all 9 million people by the end of March. population of the country.
The United Arab Emirates also approved the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine for use in extreme conditions on Thursday. The decision is said to have been based on the effectiveness of the vaccine, but did not provide further details.
Other countries are in no rush to allow the entry of Chinese or Russian-made vaccines, arguing that they lack data to demonstrate their safety and reliability, as well as other important information.
Dubai offers its residents the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is 95% effective. Due to supply limitations, it can only be vaccinated by people over the age of 60 or chronically ill. Hotline operators say thousands of at-risk residents remain on the waiting list.
With the country posting record numbers for 10 days in a row, Dubai’s leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said large-scale vaccination, not movement restrictions, “would accelerate the full recovery of our country.”
But even if Dubai achieves its target and vaccinates 70% by the end of 2021. Moody’s Investors Service estimates that it will take three years for the UAE economy to recover.
“I don’t think Dubai’s days are numbered. But if the city were more modest and responsible, it would become a more sustainable place,” says the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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