![\"Dubai-party-haven-amid-pandemic-faces-its-biggest-surge-rapid-news-rapidnews\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Dubai-party-haven-amid-pandemic-faces-its-biggest-surge-rapid-news-rapidnews.png\")
<\/p>\nMasks off the minute you step inside. Bars packed and pulsing like it\u2019s 2019. Social media stars waving bottles of champagne. DJs spinning party tunes through multi-hour brunches.<\/p>\n
Since becoming one of the world\u2019s first destinations to\u00a0open up for tourism, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has promoted itself as the ideal pandemic vacation spot. It cannot afford otherwise, analysts say, as the virus shakes the foundations of the city-state\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
With its cavernous malls, frenetic construction and legions of foreign workers, Dubai was built on the promise of globalisation, drawing largely from the aviation, hospitality and retail sectors \u2014 all hard hit by the virus.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now reality is catching up to the big-dreaming emirate. With peak tourism season in full swing, coronavirus infections are surging to unprecedented heights. Daily case counts have nearly tripled in the past month, forcing Britain to slam shut its travel corridor with Dubai last week. But in the face of a growing economic crisis, the city won\u2019t lock down.<\/p>\n
\u201cDubai\u2019s economy is a house of cards,\u201d said Matthew Page, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. \u201cIts competitive advantage is being a place where rules don\u2019t apply.\u201d<\/p>\n
While most countries banned tourists from the United Kingdom over fears of the fast-spreading virus variant found there, Dubai, home to some 240,000 British expats, kept its doors open for the holidays. Emirates flew five daily flights to London\u2019s Heathrow Airport.<\/p>\n
Within days, the new virus strain had arrived in the emirates, but that didn\u2019t stop reality TV and soccer stars from fleeing Britain\u2019s lockdown and wintry weather for Dubai\u2019s bars and beaches \u2014 without taking a coronavirus test before boarding. Scenes of pre-pandemic revelry were splattered across British tabloids. Facing backlash, Instagram influencers spotted at raucous yacht parties were quick to proclaim their travel “essential”.<\/p>\n
Dubai was glad of the influx. Hotel occupancy rates surged to 71 per cent in December, according to data provider STR. The London-Dubai air route ranked busiest in the world over the first week of January, said OAG, an aviation data analysis firm.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have had enough of this pandemic already,\u201d said Iris Sabellano from Dubai\u2019s Al Arabi Travel Agency, adding that many of her clients have been forced to quarantine after testing positive for the virus on arrival or before departure. Travelers coming from a select list of countries don\u2019t need to get tests before their trips but all must at Dubai\u2019s airport.<\/p>\n
![\"Dubai-party-haven-amid-pandemic-faces-its-biggest-surge-rapid-news-rapidnews-dailyrapidnews-uae\"](\"https:\/\/dailyrapidnews.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Dubai-party-haven-amid-pandemic-faces-its-biggest-surge-rapid-news-rapidnews-dailyrapidnews-uae.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cWith vaccines coming out, they feel it\u2019s not the end of the world, they\u2019re not going to die,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For those who do die of Covid-19, Emirates Airlines offers to pay $1,800 to help cover funeral costs.<\/p>\n
As the outbreak worsens, it seems the stampede will slow. Israeli tourists, who were coming in the tens of thousands following a normalisation deal between the countries, have vanished due to new quarantine rules. A decision to suspend visa waivers for Israelis to the UAE until July took effect on Monday. Britain\u2019s move to mandate a 10-day quarantine for those returning from Dubai threatens to clobber what\u2019s left of the tourism sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrits make up such an important proportion of tourists and investors in Dubai,\u201d said David Tarsh, spokesman for ForwardKeys, a travel data-analysis company. \u201cCutting that pipeline […] is a complete disaster for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted that the government\u2019s decision was prompted by the UAE\u2019s latest virus data. Beyond daily infections, however, the data is scant. The UAE does not make public information about disease clusters or hospitalisations.<\/p>\n
Amid an aggressive testing campaign, the country has reported more than 256,000 cases and 751 deaths. Analysts speculate the UAE\u2019s unique demographics \u2014 90pc expatriate, comprising mostly healthy, young laborers \u2014 have prevented well-staffed hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and kept the death rate low, at 0.3pc.<\/p>\n
But that hasn\u2019t assuaged Abu Dhabi, Dubai\u2019s more conservative neighbour and the country\u2019s capital. Without explanation, Abu Dhabi has kept its border with freewheeling Dubai shut, despite promises to reopen by Christmas. Anyone crossing into Abu Dhabi must present a negative coronavirus test.<\/p>\n
Relations between service-heavy Dubai and oil-rich Abu Dhabi can get tense. During the 2009 financial crisis, Abu Dhabi needed to rescue Dubai with a $20 billion bailout. This time, it\u2019s unclear whether Dubai can count on another cash infusion, given the crash in global oil prices.<\/p>\n
Even pre-pandemic, Dubai\u2019s economy was heading toward another downturn thanks to a shaky real estate market, which has plunged 30pc in value since 2014 peaks. The emirate and its web of government-linked entities face billions of dollars in debt repayments. Already the government has stepped in to help Emirates Airlines, which received $2bn in aid last year. Other indebted firms invested in hospitality and tourism may need help, especially with events like World Expo pushed back a year. S&P Global, a ratings agency, estimates Dubai\u2019s debt burden to be some 148pc of gross domestic product if state-linked industries are included.<\/p>\n
Under pressure, authorities have seized on vaccines as the only way to contain the outbreak. Plastered across front pages of state-linked newspapers are stories touting the mass inoculation drive, which officials claim to be the world\u2019s second-fastest after Israel, with 19 doses distributed for every 100 people as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The UAE is offering the Chinese coronavirus vaccine Sinopharm to everyone, even as its announcement about the shot\u2019s efficacy lacks 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.<\/p>\n
With the country shattering its infection record for seven consecutive days, Dubai\u2019s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, declared that widespread vaccination, not movement restrictions, would \u201caccelerate the full recovery of our country”.<\/p>\n
But even if Dubai meets its goal of inoculating 70pc of the population by the end of 2021, Moody\u2019s Investors Service expects the UAE\u2019s economy to take three years to bounce back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Dubai\u2019s days are numbered,\u201d said Page, the Carnegie scholar. \u201cBut if the city were more modest and responsible, it would be a more sustainable place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Masks off the minute you step inside. Bars packed and pulsing like it\u2019s 2019. Social<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n