The Growth of Dubai as a Tourist Destination
For the last 40 years, Dubai has established itself from a small fishing country to one of the rapidly growing tourist destination, thanks to the development of impressive projects. In the early 1970s, Dubai was regarded as one of the least resourceful city-state in the Arabian Gulf. However, it has emerged to be one of the new cultural and economic places in the globe. The rapid growth of Dubai has been enhanced by the establishment of new innovations in the city and along the coast. High-scale projects that has caught the tourist's attention includes skyscrapers and artificial islands. Consequently, it is important to analyze roles and significances of Dubai's artificial islands towards economic and tourism development aspect. Artificial islands will be referred to as islands that has been constructed by people, instead of natural formation. Additionally, this essay will focus on economic and tourism development analysis.
The Palm Island - A Prominent Tourist Destination
In Dubai, the palm Island stands out as the most accomplishing tourist destination compared to the rest. It is a series of three man-made islands, Palm Jebel Ali, Palm Deira, and the Parm Jumeral. The island consists of world class hotels and a wide area of beaches in one unique place. One of the luxurious hotels that is located in this artificial island is Burj al Arab (Henderson 91). Due to its impressive ambitious design, the hotel is one of the main tourist attraction in Middle East. In turn, it has led to rapid economic growth for the city-state. The island also host several shopping malls, restaurants, and sports incentives (Steiner 248). These also attract a large number of people originating from diverse places in the world.
Labor and Employment Impact on Dubai's Economy
During its construction process, the Palm artificial island developers employed local and foreign laborers in order to meet the project expectations. According to Deaki, labor and employment has an impact in economic status of a governed state or country (169). High employability improves the state's standard of living that is measured by the GDP per capita. This implies that labor force in the construction of the artificial island played a vital role to the state's labor economy and the well-being of society. Again, after construction, the establishment of world class hotels and shopping malls contributed to improved rate of employment in the country. Although the city-state city has few foreigners, most of the workers in the commercial projects are local residents. Changes in demand skills contributes to workers pursuing additional professional developments to acquire additional skills (Deaki 170). This is beneficial to Dubai as the earning workers spend their wages on purchasing products and services thereby enhancing business growth in the state. This translates to economic advancement, measured by the total demand and the GPD.
Impact on Tourism Development and Diversification
In tourism development, the artificial island has attracted tourist all over the globe especially from Europe, some parts of Asia, and Middle East. Prior to the development of the artificial island, Dubai's tourists were from Britain and Russia. Today, tourism travel in Dubai has advanced, reaching more than 30% of the state's GDP (Gupta 190). Additionally, the artificial islands and its high end hotel has drawn many renown Western, Bollywood, and Arab stars due to its overwhelming and attracting scenes. Local and foreign tourism in Dubai accounts for large amount of revenues that enhances the economic status of the country.
Increased Investment and Economic Growth
Local and foreign tourism has contributed to increased investment in Dubai. Gupta explores that famous travelers has heavily invested in Dubai due to influence from other fellow entrepreneurs and the rapid population growth. According to Gupta, notable business man and soccer legend David Beckham is believed to own a beachfront in Dubai (191). Despite attracting foreign entrepreneurs, most of the Dubai investors are local residents. These local investors focuses on commercial developments while the foreign investors are buying already constructed projects. Investment of the expensive projects and extensive marketing has contributed to advanced tourism and economic growth in Dubai. The construction of the artificial island not only plays a role in economic status but also improving Dubai's recognition in the foreign development industry (Acuto 280). Therefore, this sparks a great future expectations in the reflection of high travel targets in Dubai.
Challenges and Recommendations for Sustainable Growth
The paper highlights diverse important roles of the artificial island Dubai, in regard to economic and tourism development. It has been found that establishment of these islands has contributed to advancement of tourism travel that is a positive aspect to economic growth in Dubai. Furthermore, it is also understood labor is also a vital to economic and economic growth and development. However, despite the significances, it is crucial to note that there are some notable limitations of the artificial island developments. The development has contributed to degradation of marine species due to human activities that leads to disruption of natural flow of the sea water. In addition, due to congestion, Dubai has greatly suffered in environmental factors such as increase in salinity and temperature. Hence, to continue making Dubai a tourist destination and to secure rapid economic growth, it a recommendation for developers to contain the conflict between the economic and the environmental interests. It is important to maintain income generation while protecting the country's local ecosystem.
Works Cited
Acuto, Michele. "High-rise Dubai urban entrepreneurialism and the technology of symbolic power." Cities 27.4 (2010): 272-284
Deakin, Simon. “The Contribution of Labour Law to Economic and Human Development.” The Idea of Labour Law, 2016, pp. 156–176., doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693610.003.0011.
Gupta, Pamila. “Futures, Fakes and Discourses of the Gigantic and Miniature in ‘The World’ Islands, Dubai.” Island Studies Journal, vol. 10, no. 2, 2015, pp. 181–196.
Henderson, J C. "Tourism in Dubai: Overcoming Barriers to Destination Development." International Journal of Tourism Research. 8.2 (2006): 87-99. Print
Steiner, Christian. "From heritage to hyper-reality? Tourism destination development in the Middle East between Petra and the Palm." Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change 8.4 (2010): 240-253.
