Dubai: Tourism In The Middle East?

Dubai’s traditional economy and its strategic decision
Because of these three reasons, Dubai viewed tourism as an economically fruitful and effective industry to pursue. However, given the region’s lack of tourism development there were a number of actions Dubai had to take in order to attain their current success.
Successful Tourism Development in Dubai
The negative public perception after 9/11 caused the World Tourism Organization to set up the Tourism Recovery Committee (TRC) to counsel Arab countries on how to properly achieve tourism development.5 The Committee applauded Dubai’s approach by concluding that “_the roots of this crisis are in the lack of domestic tourism, very weak intra-regional tourism, and ignoring these market segments for marketing and promotion…in the conditions of a global crisis – where international tourism suffers from strong pressure – the importance of domestic and close-to-home tourism is obvious”.5_ In short, the well-planned strategies employed by the DCTM to promote Dubai in the developed world, as well as in the region, proved to be a major factor for their tourism success.
To support the DCTM’s initiatives (and as part of a wider diversification strategy into trade), the government of Dubai also invested heavily into the emirate’s infrastructure. This investment into its airports, airlines and sea ports was the second positive action that led to successful tourism development because it increased the accessibility to and from the state. The investments began in 1985 when the Dubai government spent US$10 billion to establish Emirates Airlines.4 At a time when many world-class airlines are facing struggles, Emirates Airlines has prospered. In fact, the airline is planning to double its fleet by the end of the decade.4 To complement this, the Dubai government has also upgraded the state’s airport numerous times. The latest expansion will cost US$ 4.1 billion upon completion, and will allow the international airport to...