Photographer: Karim Sahib / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Karim Sahib / AFP / Getty Images
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Disguise yourself as you step inside. Packed and pulsating bars as if 2019. Social media stars waving champagne bottles. DJs spinning party songs through brunch for hours.
Ever since it became one of the first destinations in the world to open for tourism, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has been promoted as the ideal pandemic vacation spot. It cannot afford otherwise, analysts say, as the virus shakes the foundations of the city-state economy.
With its cavernous malls, frantic construction and legions of foreign workers, Dubai was built on the promise of globalization, coming largely from the aviation, hospitality and retail sectors – all affected by the virus.
Now reality is catching up with the great emirate who dreams. With the peak season of tourism in full swing, coronavirus infections are rising to unprecedented heights. The daily number of cases has almost tripled in the last month, forcing the UK to close the Dubai travel corridor last week. But in the face of a growing economic crisis, the city will not be blocked.
“Dubai’s economy is a house of books,” said Matthew Page, a non-resident scientist at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Its competitive advantage is that the rules do not apply.”
While most countries have banned tourists from the UK because of fears about the rapidly spreading virus found there, Dubai, home to some 240,000 British expatriates, has kept its doors open for the holidays. Emirates operates five daily flights to Heathrow Airport in London.
Within days, the new strain of virus had reached the emirates, but that didn’t stop reality show and football stars from escaping the British blockade and winter weather for bars and beaches in Dubai – without a coronavirus test before. boarding. Scenes of pre-pandemic merriment have been spread across British tabloids. Faced with side effects, Instagram influencers observed at yacht parties rushed to proclaim their trip “essential”.
Dubai enjoyed the influx. Hotel occupancy rates rose to 71 percent in December, according to data provider STR. The London-Dubai air route ranked the busiest in the world in the first week of January, said OAG, a data analytics firm. aviation.
“People are already fed up with this pandemic,” said Iris Sabellano of Dubai’s Al Arabi Travel Agency, adding that many of its customers were forced into quarantine after testing positive for the virus on arrival or before departure. Passengers coming from a selected list of countries do not have to get tested before traveling, but all must have Dubai Airport.
“Once the vaccines come out, they feel it’s not the end of the world, they won’t die,” she said.
For those dying of COVID-19, Emirates offers to pay $ 1,800 to cover the cost of the funeral.
As the outbreak worsens, it looks like the footprint will slow down. Israeli tourists, who came in tens of thousands following a normalization agreement between the countries, have disappeared due to the new quarantine rules. A decision to suspend visa waivers for Israelis in the UAE until July came into force on Monday. Britain’s move to impose a 10-day quarantine on those returning from Dubai threatens to cover what is left of the tourism sector.
“The British represent such a large proportion of tourists and investors in Dubai,” said David Tarsh, a spokesman for ForwardKeys, a travel data analysis company. “Cutting that pipe … is a complete disaster for the city.”
British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wrote on Twitter that the government’s decision was determined by the latest data on the UAE virus. However, beyond daily infections, data are scarce. The UAE does not make public information about groups of diseases or hospitalizations.
Amid an aggressive testing campaign, the country reported more than 256,000 cases and 751 deaths.
On Tuesday, dozens of cars idled at a coronavirus clinic on the outskirts of the Dubai desert, awaiting tests. At the American Hospital in Dubai, where a makeshift tent is administering virus tests in a parking lot, a guard said the waiting time was two hours. At least 80 people lined up as the call for afternoon prayers resounded.
Hours after The Associated Press published the story, the sheikhdom’s Dubai press office issued a statement saying the emirate “continues to maintain the highest levels of protection against the pandemic and compliance.”
Analysts speculate on the UAE’s unique demographics – 90% of expatriates, mostly young healthy workers – have prevented well-staffed hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and kept the death rate low at 0.3%.
But that did not calm Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s more conservative neighbor and the country’s capital. Without explanation, Abu Dhabi has kept its border with Dubai free, despite promises to reopen until Christmas. Anyone crossing Abu Dhabi must have a negative coronavirus test.
Relations between Dubai with high services and Abu Dhabi, rich in oil, can become strained. During the 2009 financial crisis, Abu Dhabi had to save Dubai with $ 20 billion in aid. This time, it is unclear whether Dubai can count on another cash infusion, given the collapse in global oil prices.
Even before the pandemic, Dubai’s economy was heading for another recession due to a shaky real estate market, which has fallen by 30% in value since its 2014 highs. The emirate and its network of government entities are facing billions in debt repayments. USD. The government has already intervened to help the carrier Emirates, which received $ 2 billion in aid last year. Other indebted companies invested in hospitality and tourism may need help, especially with events such as the World’s Fair pushed a year ago. S&P Global, a rating agency, estimates that Dubai’s debt is about 148% of gross domestic product if state-related industries are included.
Under pressure, authorities confiscated vaccines as the only way to counter the outbreak. Placed on the front pages of state-run newspapers are stories that support the impulse of mass inoculation, which officials say is the second fastest in the world after Israel, with 19 doses distributed for every 100 people since Tuesday.
The United Arab Emirates offers the Chinese coronavirus vaccine Sinopharm to everyone, even if its announcement about the effectiveness of the shot does not have data and details. Demand has overwhelmed supply for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Dubai, where hotline operators say thousands of high-risk residents remain on a waiting list.
With the country breaking its infection record for seven consecutive days, Dubai’s leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said large-scale vaccination, not movement restrictions, would “accelerate our country’s full recovery.”
But even if Dubai meets its goal of inoculating 70% of the population by the end of 2021, Moody’s Investors Service expects the UAE economy to take three years to recover.
“I don’t think Dubai’s days are numbered,” said Page, a Carnegie scholar. “But if the city were more modest and responsible, it would be a more sustainable place.”
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Dubai Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report.