Welcome to Dubai, city of merchants, cultural crossroads, second largest of the seven United Arab Emirates. A country where the dust of the desert is clearing to reveal the potential for one of the most significant international cities of the 21st century. 

It has spectacular beaches but is not Australia; it is one of the world's most secure destinations but is not Singapore; it has opulent city hotels and superb beachside resorts but is neither Jakarta nor Bali. It has world class shopping but is not Hong Kong.

Wedged between Europe and Asia, buttressed by Africa, Dubai's encouraging tax regimes, state-of-the-art telecommunications and sympathetic business environment have produced a country that is building energetically on the advantages which location, centuries-old trading savvy and oil wealth have given it.

Dubai is not just a city of excitement. It's also a city of surprises. The magnificently-manicured, lush and green golf courses. The Irish Village at the Dubai Tennis Centre. Red telephone boxes which once brightened the British streetscape have found a home in Dubai. alongside the UAE's best.

Tourism is now an important part of the Dubai government's strategy to maintain the flow of foreign dollars into the emirate. "Dubai's attraction," says Patrick Macdonald, deputy chief executive of the Dubai Commerce and Tourism Promotion Board, is that it provides an Arabian experience in a very comfortable, safe and tolerant society.



Dubai Autdrome complex  

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