Dubai I Abu Dhabi I Oman: Between desert and skyscrapers

Dubai, vitality and extravagance "Wow! That's how you might sum up the effect of discovering Dubai, an intense amazement at the gigantic scale of its buildings, which for the most part are still emerging from wastelands dotted with cranes and earth-moving machinery. Because of its small territory, Dubai builds on high ground or simply annexes the turquoise waters of the Gulf to create mega-projects that attract a great deal of media attention: there were the Palms, three groups of artificial offshore islands each depicting a palm tree, and then there was The World, which evokes a planisphere with 300 islands selling for between 15 and 50 million dollars per plot, 45 % of which have already found buyers. Today we learn that the same principle will be used to build... The Universe: an archipelago whose islands will represent the solar system, its planets and its satellites. There's no doubt about it, Dubai is thinking big, but the emirate, which has freed itself from an economy dependent on oil, is experiencing a rapid expansion that owes much to its commercial vein. A culture that dates back to the early twentieth century, when the port of Dubai thrived on the pearling industry. At that time, its port and souks were already the largest in the region and its population the most cosmopolitan.

Now the Middle East's leading financial centre and the world's fourth-largest port operator, Dubai has also set up around twenty free trade zones, each hosting a different sector of the market's heavyweights: Microsoft, IBM, Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, HP, Nokia and Siemens in Internet City, and Associated Press, Reuters, CNN and BBC World in Media City. This emirate the size of Tarn-et-Garonne generates 30 % of the United Arab Emirates' GDP, or some 40 billion dollars.

Shopping and wild nights

"The energy of Dubai fascinates," says Patrick Pondo, Mice Director of Desert Adventures. Companies that organise incentive events there are in fact associating themselves with this vitality, a powerful federator. What's more, the city is a combination of several ingredients: a central geographical location between Asia and Europe, a safe and hospitable Arab territory and a tolerant cosmopolitan society. In the giant shopping centres that Dubai boasts, young women stroll around in miniskirts, abayas and niqabs - black veils covering all but the eyes. Wealthy young people from neighbouring countries can't resist this freedom. They come from Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City, Oman and Beirut to stroll, shop and party in Dubai, which is packed with trendy restaurants and nightclubs where the DJ gotha officiates. Beirut, long famous for its intense nightlife, has found its post-modern replacement.

Giga-realisations

The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCA) is quick to point out that "Dubai is more about commerce than religion". One might have expected this in the city that invented the seven-star hotel and is swirling with projects, each more gigantic than the last. Such is the case with Dubailand, a gigapark of attractions covering an area the size of the city itself. It will be home to the world's largest indoor ski slope and a profusion of theme parks, including the world-first Dreamworks Studios created by Steven Spielberg (Fourmiz, Shrek...). It will also be home to Falcon City (400 hectares), a city in the shape of a falcon. This complex will include a theme park, a mall (the head of the falcon), villas and residential or office buildings, and replicas of a selection of the world's most famous sites: the Great Wall of China (1,700 metres long, but higher than the original), a pyramid (the largest in the world), a district of Venice, a 'Central Park' lined with buildings, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Taj Mahal (bigger, of course) and finally the Eiffel Tower (higher, of course).

Within Dubailand, the emirate's most ambitious hotel project... Bawadi will bring together a procession of resorts, boutique hotels and themed establishments... In all, 51 hotels and 60,000 rooms on a ten-kilometre long avenue - in short, a Las Vegas-style strip. Opening planned in different phases, from 2010 to 2014. These projects, and so many others that it would take a phone book to list them all, will increase the range of leisure activities available to incentive groups, who will be spoilt for choice as their average stay will not exceed three nights. For the time being, between the city's souks and museums, water sports, forays into the desert or a trip down Ski Dubai, there is already a wide range of activities on offer, not to mention the international events: Dubai Desert Classic (golf), Dubai Tennis Championships, Dubai World Cup (horse racing)... Patrick Pondo says he has had great success organising meetings with their Emirati counterparts for groups of doctors, telecoms engineers or advertising executives. "What sometimes starts as a 'course' on the local culture very quickly becomes an exchange that breaks down prejudices. The participants realise that these 'natives' in white dishdashs with whom they are conversing were educated in London or New York and know a lot about Western culture... whereas they know nothing about Emirati culture." Which sets the record straight.

Hallucinatory visions

But we're always a little out of touch in Dubai. Where exactly are we? Marrakech? Orlando? Singapore? Las Vegas? Like nowhere else, the city conjures up hallucinatory visions. One of many: Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower (800 metres) reflected in the artificial lake of Old Town, an old city, but in the style of here, i.e. in the process of being completed and in the style of a Thousand and One Nights... But here we have yet another announcement of a new project: Lyon Dubai City - 300 hectares - developing "a principle of European-style organisation of the city, to find in this district the same atmosphere as in a Lyonnais bistro". So it won't be long before the French can come and enjoy a sausage in the Emirate's traffic jams!