Dubai offers vacationers much in the way of holiday and tourist activities. Most of the Emirate is desert and it is only natural that such activities as desert safaris and camel racing feature among the top attractions. As do the entertainment parks like Wild Wadi, Wonderland and Magic Planet. Sporting activities include horse riding, go karting, ice skating, bowling and golfing. Various tour operators arrange excursions and tours of the Creek or even aerial tours of Dubai by helicopter and hot air balloon. More sedate activities include walking in the parks or on the numerous beaches. Shopping features heavily in the “shopping capital of the Middle East” with its numerous souks, malls, boutiques and exclusive stores.
Dubai Holiday Activities
No trip to the Arab lands would be complete without a foray into the desert. Many excursion companies offer various packages involving a trip into the desert using luxury four-wheel-drive vehicles with optional buffet dinners or overnight stays. Camel rides are an option, as is dune racing. Since cloud and rainfall are infrequent, unhindered views of the heavens are almost guaranteed and spectacular, with no ambient light to diminish the awe of God’s creation.
Traditional Arabic food usually accompanies such trips, complementing the flavor of Arab coffee, and some tour companies even offer male and female Bedouin dress for those who really want to get into the swing of things.
Dune bashing – roaring up, over and down sand dunes – is another thrilling option, but not for the faint hearted.
A visit to the Dubai National Museum, situated in Al Fahidi Fort, one of Dubai’s most ancient historical buildings, offers fascinating insight into the social, economic and professional life of the region stretching back over a century. There are also numerous archaeological artifacts depicting Arabic life as far back as the third, second, and first millennium BC.
Burj-al-Arab Hotel in Dubai - a Contemporary Masterpiece
Among the items on display are a skeleton, maps, clothing, pottery, stone and metallic artifacts, musical instruments, and the more grisly aspects of the past, curved daggers – hanjars – swords, bows and arrows, axes, spears, sharkskin shields, as well as pistols.
Al Fahidi Fort was originally built to defend the town from neighboring tribes and has adopted various roles as an arsenal, jail, seat of government and as ruler’s residence. Now it safeguards the memories of the past as Dubai fast enters the 21st century at an astonishing technological pace.
Dubai Business Interests
Since Dubai is the principal re-export center for the region, serving India, the CIS, Central Asia and South Africa, and despite its relatively small population, its total imports are close to an annual 15 billion dollars.
In supplying emergent economies Dubai is able to offer a plethora of goods and services, with the less prosperous countries happily receiving cheap-to-produce mass consumer products. This has not gone unnoticed by foreign manufacturers who are able to produce products using less sophisticated machinery for countries whose populations have lower expectation levels of product build quality and specification. As a gateway market, Dubai has the potential to service some 1 billion people.
Setting up a business in Dubai has been made deliberately easy through a well-disciplined though relatively unrestricted code resulting in Dubai offering business people the most liberal and opportunistic commercial market in the region.
There are three types of license available: commercial licenses covering various types of trading activity; professional licenses governing professions, financial and other services, and artisans or craftspeople; and industrial licenses for manufacturing or industrial activities.
All licenses are issued by the Dubai Economic Department, although licenses for certain categories of business require approval from specific ministries or authorities. Banks and financial institutions must seek approval from the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. Insurance companies and related businesses must turn to the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. Manufacturing, pharmaceutical and medical businesses must apply for licenses respectively from the Ministry of Finance and Industry and the Ministry of Health.
For more information and furtehr reading see Emirate of Dubai
