Dubai’s huge service sector faces unsure future

by Aziz El Massassi

In Dubai’s ritzy Marina district, white yachts are tethered to docks, standing idle — like many companies behind a luxury lifestyle industry battered by the coronavirus crisis.

The boardwalks that snake around the precinct’s artificial bays and canals, once packed with tourists, mostly from China, Russia and Britain, are now deserted.

“Nearly 95 percent, if not 100 percent, of turnover has been lost,” the manager of a yacht charter company told AFP.

When the United Arab Emirates halted all commercial flights and enforced a strict curfew to stem the spread of the disease, fishing trips and sightseeing excursions dried up “without warning”, the young Frenchman said.

Dubai, one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, lacks the oil wealth of its neighbours.

But it has the most diversified economy in the Gulf, building a reputation as a financial, commercial and tourism hub that draws some 16 million visitors a year.

The cosmopolitan city state’s services sector is fuelled by hundreds of thousands of foreigners, ranging from the super-rich to low-income migrant workers behind the scenes of the highlife.

Together, they have helped create and operate a city packed with gleaming office districts as well as megamalls, luxury resorts and tourist attractions such as an indoor ski slope and a bar on the 124th floor of the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa.

While the UAE has so far recorded more than 15,000 coronavirus infections and 146 deaths, some lockdown measures have been lifted and many business have reopened.

However, for both employers and employees, uncertainty remains. (AFP)