Dubai’s economy was built on oil, and it was a large part of their GDP for more than
3 decades. But Dubai knew that the oil would not last forever, and they would need to find
a new source of income. SO they took a huge risk, and spent tens of billions of dollars
to completely transform the city into a luxury tourist destination within just 20 years to
try and lower their reliance on crude oil exports. But can Dubai really survive without
oil, and has their multi billion dollar tourism plan actually worked out?
Oil was first discovered off the coast of Dubai in the 1960’s, and it quickly became
a very important part of their economy. As the decades went by, the United Arab Emirates
became more reliant on oil than anything else in their economy, but this dependency on oil
would not last forever. So Dubai made a plan. A plan to spend tens of billions of dollars
to transform the city into a modern day tourist destination. Over the next two decades, Dubai
began its transformation. Building 3 of the world’s biggest artificial islands, the
tallest building in the world, and much more. With the country generating over 300 billion
dollars from crude oil exports within the past 5 decades, they basically had an unlimited
budget to build what no other country had and be one of a kind in the tourism spectrum
Dubai wasd taking a huge risk, but they thought it would pay off in the end of they offered
something the rest of the world could not. Uninterrupted luxury tourism every day of
the year. With perfect weather, and a great location between many major countries, they
believed that their massive investment would pay off. Throughout the early 2,000 and into
2008, things were going considerably well, but the financial crisis of 2008 put a halt
to Dubai’s tourism plans. Just as the city celebrated the completion of the Palm Jumeirah,
the rest of the world suffered one of the worst economic downfalls in history. This
begs the question, was it worth it for Dubai to invest all this money into tourism, well,
they really had no choice. With some oil reserves set to run out within two decades, Dubai had
to have a secondary income source, even if it wasn’t as dominant as oil.
So through 20010, 2011, and 2012 Dubai continued its rapid expansion, and built up the financial
crisis that occurred in 2008. In May of 2013, Dubai launched the Dubai tourism, Strategy
2020, with a goal to attract 20 million visitors by the year of 2020. This was a very ambitious
development, and included some of the most iconic and unique landmarks in Dubai such
as the Museum of the Future and the Dubai Frame. And all these ambitious development
projects were actually working out, and Dubai’s tourist numbers continued to climb. In 2018,
Dubai set another record with 15.9 million tourists, bringing in 74 billion dollars for
the country.
Dubai’s investment was paying off, and they were able to successfully change their economic
dependence on oil, and rely heavily on tourism. Things were looking even better in 2019, but
took a sharp turn in 2020. The tourism market completely crashed, and Dubai saw the worst
effects from it. Their economy fell 11%, since it heavily relied on tourism, retail, and
travel. But one year later, things are beginning to pick up again, showing hurt even in times
of economic despair, recovery can always turn things around. In 2009, 85% of the United
Arab Emirates economy was based on oil exports, but in 2021, it's down to just 30 percent.
So now back to the most important question out of everything we’ve seen so far, Can
Dubai survive without oil, well, yes. They can. And here's why. Before the events of
2020, Dubai was able to double its tourist numbers in just 10 years, and they are continuing
to develop more megaprojects to keep these tourists returning year after year. and it's
Their now predicting 25 Million tourists by 2025, as more incredible development projects
get underway. Dubai’s tourism development has also achieved positive press from all
over the world, which has helped promote it even more. When the U A E government proposed
this enormous project, they never expected such a massive amount of media coverage from
all over the world. Which overall helped promote tourism in the Middle East.
20 years after Dubai began its incredible transformation, we can see that it paid off
big time and dramatically helped their economy lower its reliance on crude oil exports throughout
the past twenty years. Only a very small portion of my audience is subscribed, so if you enjoyed
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