Went to Dubai during Christmas. Very nice place, but we went to the touristy places, so I'm not sure how empty it's supposed to be everywhere else. The shopping malls were busy of course, but we went to the Burj Khalifa and it felt really empty.
Anyone want to come down to Dubai for a visit let me know if any help needed. For what it's worth from a biased Dubaian: Your English is likely to improve and Arabic worsen while you're here. Almost no recreational drugs here, the laws are very serious, bribing your way out of trouble is impossible since the cops are very well paid. There are women covered head to toe, and there are women wearing almost nothing - they are just in different places usually, you got to know where to go. Wearing almost nothing is technically illegal, but it's proving difficult to enforce this. When these two extremes mix, it tends to cause legal problems. Crime is low, despite what the UK papers project. Look at any country statistics you trust. Some of the biggest malls in the world, great shopping. We have a ski slope in one mall, a massive acquarium full of tropical fish in another, ice skating rink. Truly over the top stuff. Weather unbearably hot between May and August. Clubs are awesome. Food incredible. Abu Dhabi, the capital city, has way bigger plans and has all the cash. Dubai owed roughly $80bn in debts and Abu Dhabi loaned Dubai $10bn to cope. Rest was refinanced. No debt payments coming up that are of concern. Some extremely hot spots to go to in Abu Dhabi nowadays, though they are usually empty on weekdays. Emirates Palace, Sky Bar, Ferrari World, Yas Island, Monte Carlo Beach Club. Check these out. Dubai got empty for a couple of years but is bustling again. I would say it picked up around November last year, helped largely by rich people moving themselves and their assets out of the Arab Spring countries and Iran. Same inflow/outflow of European/North American/Australian expatriates. This is normal for the UAE - roughly 1 million UAE nationals and 6 million expatriates (with no long term residency offered) means the population is very fluid. Some of the pictures posted here are cancelled projects. Two of the Palms and the World Islands are ok, not cancelled. There is bad stuff too, but plenty of people have brought them up already in the thread.
Dubai is betting by building all these structures it will attract enough investments and tourists for the future, will that work when the oil fields are depleted in middle east in the future? Only time will tell. Would the money be better spend by improve the skill and education level of people and model itself after Israel or Singapore ? Who knows. Everyone just sit back and see how this turns out say in 30 years.
