Dubai Overview

Welcome to Dubai, city of merchants, cultural crossroads, second largest of the seven United Arab Emirates. A country where the dust of the desert is clearing to reveal the potential for one of the most significant international cities of the 21st century.

Wedged between Europe and Asia, buttressed by Africa, Dubai's encouraging tax regimes, state-of-the-art telecommunications and sympathetic business environment have produced a country that is building energetically on the advantages which location, centuries-old trading savvy and oil wealth have given it.

Tourism is now an important part of the Dubai government's strategy to maintain the flow of foreign dollars into the emirate. "Dubai's attraction," says Patrick Macdonald, deputy chief executive of the Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board, is that it provides an Arabian experience in a very comfortable, safe and tolerant society.

"Visitors can enjoy all the international pursuits - golf, watersports, horse racing, polo and nightlife. Plus there's the attraction of the desert itself, with the opportunity to be part of an Arabian adventure."

Originally a small fishing settlement, Dubai was taken over in the 1830s by a tribe led by the Maktoum family, which still rules the emirate today. So began a trading empire based on gold, silver, pearls and spices. A fusion of Arab, Persian and Indian flair established Dubai's business acumen.

There is perhaps no better place to delve into Dubai's history than in the museum housed beneath the 180-year-old Al Fahidi Fort in Bur Dubai. Here the old is replicated using new technology.

Tableaux show life as it used to be on a working dhow in Dubai Creek; in the souks and the mosques; and in the desert camps of the Bedouin tribes. And while much of the traditional way of life in Dubai has disappeared in the shiny reflection of the glass and glitz of five star hotels and commercial offices, and has been devoured by modern highways, bridges and underpasses, the essence of Arabia

remains in busy side streets, along the creek, and in the desert which blows at Dubai's backdoor. The city i divided by Dubai Creek. Consequently the most interesting and direct way to travel from Bur Dubai to Deira on the north bank is by abra water taxi, a traditional form of transport used by locals to go about their business; and by tourists to access the spice and gold souks, and the myriad shops selling textiles and electrical goods in the Shindagha quarter.

Visitors stepping off a boat on the waterfront at Deira should make a point of looking at the dhows waiting tobe loaded with goods bound for neighboring countries. The piles of unattended cargo on the dockside illustrate the underlying honesty of Dubai society. The dhow owners do not begin loading the boat until every item to be carried has arrived on the wharf. This can often take several weeks. In the meantime, the unpacked cargo stays where it is. But no one touches it. Crime here is the lowest in the world. Dubai is a clean, safe country with great shopping, a good climate for most of the year and lots to do for those who want to be active."