When people talk about Dubai, what comes in mind is the giant skyscrapers, the massive malls and the beautiful luxury hotels clustered in the city. But a majority of the laymen travelers do not know the geography of this beautiful city in the Arab World. They wonder where is Dubai anyways? Even worse still, there are other people that thin, Dubai is a country!
Well, Dubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dubai is definitely not a country. But it is one of the most beautiful urban centers in the Middle East and should be in every traveler’s bucket list. Obviously, traveling to Dubai will only be possible once the current Coronavirus pandemic subsides.
Sixty years ago, Dubai was just a mere dusty and arid village at the edge of Arabian Gulf. As of 2020, Dubai has the tallest building in the world: The Burj Khalifa which stands at 2,490 ft (830m) tall. At the foot of this mega building is the Dubai Fountain which has jets and lights synchronized to a soothing music.
The Dubai Miracle Garden has been a tourist attraction for lovers across the world during Valentine’s Day. The miracle garden commenced operations in February of 2013 in the heart of Dubailand.
The Dubai Miracle Garden provides incredible services and facilities such as the VIP parking, prayer rooms, ablution facilities, carts for disabled visitors, toilet blocks as well as a security room to facilitate the visitors’ experience. Within the Dubai Miracle Garden is the Dubai Butterfly Garden which was recently added a few while ago. The Dubai Butterfly Garden is the largest butterfly garden in the world featuring more than 15,000 butterflies of about 26 species. The Butterfly Garden also known as the Dubai Butterfly Park gives visitors an opportunity to understand the life and world of butterflies. If you are traveling with children, this theme park will provide them an opportunity to understand the different life stages of this insect all within this indoor park.
Only a mere 25,000 people lived in Dubai about half a century ago. But in 2020, more than 5 million people call Dubai home. The United Arab Emirates’ largest city is more popular with expatriates and foreign workers from a variety of countries around the world.
Dubai’s rapid growth as the Middle East’s commercial hub was made possible due to the discovery of oil in the city in 1966. The oil was discovered in Dubai’s offshore Fateh Field. Commercial oil export from this field started three years later in 1969.
But the most significant factor leading to Dubai’s rise as the most sought after destination among ardent travelers has to do with the construction of the International Airport in the city. Coupled with the central geographical position of Dubai, the Dubai International Airport handles more than 90 million passengers annually.
It is the fastest growing airport in the world and has recently overtaken the London Heathrow Airport in the Untied Kingdom and Tokyo’s Haneda Interantional Airport in Japan. Most travelers from Asia and Australia while heading to Europe make a stopover in this city.
There are plans of increasing the capacity of the airport to handle more than 160 million international travelers per year. Whereas this can be made possible by expanding the airport, it can also be achieved by spacing out the international arrivals evenly throughout the day.
With the success of Dubai, other rivals in the neighborhood have tried their luck to attract international travel. The UAE’s capital city Abu Dhabi built a new terminal in 2005 and another one in 2009 hence enabling it to handle nearly 25 million passengers in 2016. Also, Qatar’s Hamad International Airport in Doha opened in 2014 and enabled the Qatari capital city to handle more than 35 million passengers per year.
But will the UAE’s commercial hub city sustain its crown as the most sought after city in the area? This is because with the improved fuel economy among commercial jetliners, an increasing number of airlines would want to fly nonstop from Far East Asia to Europe without a stop over. This is more possible with Airbus’ most advanced A350 aircraft and Boeing’s state of the art Boeng 787 Dreamliner. These two aircrafts are brutally fuel efficient and have virtually made the giant Airbus A380 and the Boeing 747 become extinct.
With the improved range of the A350 and the Boeing 789, it is possible to travel nonstop between Perth in Australia and London’s Heathrow. The distance between the two cities is 14,170km while the range of an Airbus A350 is a whopping 15,000km. Most of the cities in East Asia are also within range. For example, the distance between Tokyo Japan and London England is only 9,700km and hence a nonstop flight will be more economical for most airlines.
