Economy

Dubai, UAE » City Info » Economy

Dubai is an important tourist destination and its port (JebeL Ali) operates at the centre of the exporting trade in the Middle East. With the introduction of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in 2004, it has allowed Dubai to develop as a global hub for service industries such as IT and finance.


The government has set up industry-specific free zones throughout the city in order to attract foreign businesses and this has been Dubai’s greatest economic achievement. The economy has benefited from new technological advances of information and communication by the introduction of The Dubai Internet City and Media City. Dubai has tempted many established media companies, such as CNN, to base their Middle East operations in the city.


Dubai is the second wealthiest emirate in the UAE, after Abu Dhabi which is the capital state. Most tourists believe Dubai’s revenues came primarily from oil but in fact it only used a moderate amount of oil reserves to generate the infrastructure for trade, manufacturing and tourism, in order to build up its economy.


About 95% of Dubai’s Gross Domestic Product is not oil-based. It is expected that by 2010, oil will account for less than one percent of Dubai’s GDP and tourism to produce 20% of the GDP. These figures explain why Dubai has had to become a more dynamic and diversified economy in order to survive the decay of fossil fuels.


In the early 1990’s there were only a handful of hotels available for tourists and Dubai never had high oil revenues like Abu Dhabi so something had to change. The Burj Al Project in 1994 (Burj Al Arab Hotel) gave hope to the economy, as a long term strategy, an ambition to become the world’s top tourist destination.


Since then, Dubai has never looked back; it has rapidly changed into an investor’s playground with tourism rocketing sky high. Dubai city hopes to accommodate 15 million visitors in 2015.