Shifting sands: Dubai’s growth as a destination

"We are now coming up to The World islands, with the South America group up ahead and Japan off to the right." ­Thiago, from Brazil, is piloting the new Airbus helicopter, a black Eurocopter AS350 B3 Squirrel to be exact, with such deftness and insouciance it feels like I'm in a giant toy. Taking off from Dubai Festival City, we pass first over Bur Dubai and Deira, which from the air make Dubai now look like a fully developed city. The bend in Dubai Creek looks for a second like London's River Thames. Then, rounding The Palm and heading back over Jumeirah towards the Burj Khalifa, the long, endless wide roads and giant villas remind me of Los Angeles.

I’m on board with some Russian and Chinese tourists, who have come to experience something they say they could not do in their own countries nearly so cheaply or easily – a 22-minute aerial tour costs Dh900 per person. The experience is relentlessly photographed and selfied – my Chinese counterpart fervently interrupts my window gazing to get me to pose with his mother on the back seat before we are oh-so-gently placed back down to earth. At the Portakabin-­style HQ of Helidubai, more groups are waiting.

Dubai as a tourist destination currently receives more than 11 million visitors a year, up 6 per cent on 2013 figures. By 2020, this number is predicted to rise to 20 million; in the year of the Expo, from 2020 to 2021, a total of 25 million is expected. According to the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, the number of hotel rooms in Dubai reached more than 92,000 in December last year; it predicts this figure to rise to between 140,000 and 160,000 by 2020.

What this means in practical terms is that just when you thought Dubai had done and acquired everything, it is in fact just getting started. The roll call of expected projects runs into the hundreds; the most exciting upcoming hotel openings include an InterContinental Dubai Marina, the long-awaited Palazzo Versace Dubai, a Hard Rock Hotel Dubai Marina, a St Regis Dubai, the Langham Palm Jumeirah and Nikki Beach Resort & Spa Dubai. And that’s just the next six months. Next year will see the arrival of a new Westin on Sheikh Zayed Road, two W Hotels, on SZR and The Palm, and two Viceroys – again, one for The Palm and one for SZR.

Visitors to Dubai now expect to see something new each time they visit, and pending visitor attractions are also mind-boggling in the way that only Dubai can be. Due for delivery this year are the 65-hectare Quran Park near Dubai International Airport, the Dh250-million Deira Fish Market, the Dubai Frame in Zabeel Park, Dubai Design District and Wire World (“the largest man-made adventure park in the world”, featuring “70 obstacles set in trees, across rocks and on poles and posts and designed to be challenging fun for all ages”).

Next year, visitors should get ready for the Dubai Safari Project in Al Warqa (south-east of Dubai Creek), a 400-hectare ensemble of African, Asian and Arabian villages, “a children’s zoo, butterfly park and botanical garden, 1,000 animals from around the world, educational and veterinary facilities”; IMG Worlds of Adventure, “the world’s largest temperature-controlled indoor themed-entertainment destination”; the first phase of Dubai Parks and Resorts, comprising three theme parks – Legoland Dubai (a theme park featuring 15,000 Lego model structures made from 60 million Lego bricks, along with 40 interactive rides in six themed areas); Motiongate Dubai; and Bollywood Parks Dubai.

Moving into 2017, the Six Flags theme park in Jebel Ali will be completed within a ­multi-themed park project in that location; in addition the Dubai Historical District, making up the oldest parts of the city around the creek including Shindagha, Bur Dubai, Al Fahidi and Deira, should have been “restored and transformed into a cultural and heritage destination” involving the redevelopment of about 60 projects, including upgrades of the Textile, Spice and Gold souqs, the installation of new abra stops at Shindagha and “pedestrianised areas lined with historical stories accessed through smart applications or through a newly created team of trained Emirati tour guides”.

If all of this causes you to pause for breath, consider that ­bringing tourists to Dubai is just one part of an integrated strategy linking local economic growth into global business – and central to this is the airline industry, which makes up 27 per cent of Dubai’s GDP, or about $27 billion (Dh99.18bn) a year, rising to a projected $53bn (37.5 per cent of GDP) in 2020. This makes the emirate as much a crossroads as a destination, and to this end, Dubai’s growth to date and its ambitions for 2020 are nothing less than world-dominating.

Last year, Dubai International Airport surpassed London Heathrow as the world’s busiest international airport, with 70.4 million passengers – a figure that has risen from 12.3 million in 2000 (then, Dubai was the world’s 30th busiest international airport).

According to a spokesman for Dubai Airports, this growth has been driven by factors including government vision, location (Dubai is within eight hours’ flying time of two thirds of the world’s population), the rapid expansion of Emirates and FlyDubai, a lack of burdensome taxes, efficient operations and competitive airport rates (including landing fees), “which compare favourably to those charged by airports of similar size around the globe”. In addition, non-airline-related commercial revenues at the airport have generated money for world-class facilities.

Dubai International Airport is expected to be operating at its full capacity of 100 million passengers a year by 2020, which, combined with estimated annual passenger numbers of 26 million for Al Maktoum International Airport (its expansion is slated for 2025 and beyond), brings the combined total number of passengers to 126 million by 2020.

Even today and to the well-­travelled, the size of Dubai International Airport and the number of destinations it serves is almost unnerving. In total, about 100 airlines connect Dubai with 270 destinations on six continents (the exception being Antarctica). Each time I visit the airport, there are direct routes to places I’ve never heard of – Tiruchirappalli, Dayrestan, Sialkot or Mineralnyye Vody, ­anyone?

Yet it’s not just anyone who’s visiting these places. Emirates alone carried almost 45 million passengers last year to 144 destinations in 81 countries, and expects to carry 70 million by 2020. With 60 Airbus A380s – seemingly the only aircraft big enough to carry the growing number of passengers – currently in service, another 80, or $135 billion worth, are on order. Tim Clark, the president of Emirates, has stated that by 2020 the airline will have more than 250 aircraft. “It will make us the largest airline on the planet by international passenger traffic,” he said.

FlyDubai, which only launched in 2009, now flies to almost 100 destinations in 46 countries. Last year, it carried more than 7 million passengers and it operates 1,400 flights a week. It has launched 13 destinations this year alone, and a spokeswoman said the airline “continues to look for opportunities to open up underserved destinations within six hours or a 6,000-kilometre reach of Dubai, an area which is home to 2.5 billion ­people”.

Benefiting from all of this is the fabric of Dubai itself, especially its hotel infrastructure. Philippe Zuber, the chief operating officer of Emaar Hospitality Group (which is now expanding internationally to countries such as Egypt and Turkey, and owns and develops real estate and hotels including The Address Dubai Mall, The Address Downtown Dubai, and the Vida and Manzil Downtown Dubai), says its role is to “create hospitality experiences that meet the needs of the diverse spectrum of visitors to Dubai ... with more than 200 nationalities resident, and the city emerging as a global hub for business and leisure, our services must be aligned to appeal to the trendy, tech-­savvy, cosmopolitan guest”.

However impersonal this may sound, the attraction of Dubai to many tourists, whether from the developed West or Asian middle classes, is the slick blending of travel and transit, business and leisure (“bleisure”), lack of crime and vertically integrated centres of shopping, eating, lodging and entertaining.

Anne Stander, an American resident of Dubai who recently hosted expatriate relatives based in Myanmar, said: “Glitz and glamour – that’s what people want. [My relatives living in Myanmar] wanted to go to the movies, and the mall, and just be on clean roads with no pollution. Safety – that’s not just luxury but priceless. The way the beaches are set up in Dubai is very nice, and they enjoyed having a great experience at the Dubai Aquarium. In other cities, aquariums are at separate locations. This is relaxing, and it gives families more time to enjoy each other.”

And that is, perhaps, the unspectacular truth of Dubai’s spectacular success. Some people may not like what it has to offer, but many more do. Dubai doesn’t care what can’t be done, only what can; in many ways it’s a blank slate, a launching pad, and, even on holiday, it’s what you do with it, what you make of it, that really matters. With a now seemingly limitless global reach, the possibilities and connections are endless. To some it’s a soulless entity, but to many others it’s a call to action that far from handing you everything on a plate, demands your input.

rbehan@thenational.ae

Helicopter tours of Dubai cost Dh595 per person for 12 minutes or Dh895 per person for 22 minutes, with Helidubai (www.helidubai.com).

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