Back in the mid-00’s the internet was obsessed with Dubai and it seems like everyday there was a new proposed or planned expansion in Dubai. From towers taller than the still being-built Burj Khalifa, to a Dubailand theme park with 10 different major theme parks within it, to a full space-port. Hundreds of billions of dollars of investment was put into Dubai which then evaporated and thousands of projects were stopped and shuttered. Only recently has Dubai seen to be getting back on track, but what would have happened if the 2008 economic crash hadn’t happened, would all those projects have actually seen completion? I understand that part of the reason for the crash really was over-investment in wild schemes like Dubai but lets pretend that’s entirely separate for now.
Since this requires speculation, let’s move it to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Dubai has been booming for years. The slowdown did not really effect the day to day, only some big ticket construction.
I lived in Abu Dhabi (about 65 miles away) from 1999-2003 and returned frequently between 2007-2013.
There are a HUGE number of office buildings, we’re talking 20-30 stories each, that were built in the early 2000’s and now stand deserted, victims of the 2008 over-reach. Some of the projects have gone ahead (the new Airport, the Palms, the Metro elevated trains) while others have been pushed down the road.
Tourism (and hotels and malls) is still a major business, and it can be a wonderful place to vacation if you like beaches and shopping (and can ignore the somewhat ugly underbelly of the ‘guest’ workers who build and run it), but the desire to be the business hub of the region–the Singapore or Switzerland or New York of the Middle East and more–is in abeyance.
Errr, it is the financial hub of the region and has stolen a significant amount of S Asian business as well in the last 10-15 years. I have been going regularly to Dubai since 2009 and I cannot agree that its not the business hub already.
Its a lousy place to vacation, Manhattan with more sand and less character and much more heat.
And yet tourists come (not me, like you it was business, not pleasure).
Oh, I don’t doubt it is doing quite well, but if you’ve driven down the Shiek Zayed Highway towards Abu Dhabi, you’ll come upon an area with a minimum of 70 tall office buildings (near the Hard Rock Cafe, IIRC) that, at least the last time I was there, were deserted and a complete Ghost town. That is what stuck in my mind.
I guess what I should have said is that while Dubai is doing well, they did…over-estimate…how much business was coming to town in the early 2000’s and now have multiple empty towers being sand-blasted by the years.
ETA: Looks like the Hard Rock has moved.
I was once talking with my dad about some related topic, and mentioned how absolutely brutal it must be to work outdoors in a place like that. He, in all seriousness, replied “Oh, nobody works outside in Dubai”. “Oh? But what of the things that need to be done?” “They hire other folks to do all that for them.”