To ask why people like Dubai so much?

[moreyoudoknow]

I know loads of people who now say it's their favourite holiday destination?

What's so lovely about it? Looks too hot to me? Can go above 45 weather wise!

I like the Canary Islands because the sun burns down but it has a cool breeze... a hidden gem if you hate sweltering heat

From pictures, it looks like a city like London that just has pools?

Very good point, for expats it is for those trailing and on a sponsored visa if they need a NOC or not. Unless they change the visa type to get one in their own right.

The indigenous population is only, roughly, 10% of the population. Which must be hard for locals to deal with too. But they do embrace it and it does change their culture. Again for good.. and bad.

It’s just the new must go to sunny place for shady people

The place is a failed Epcot city experiment, all there is, is the ugliness of consumerism and greed.

You know many service workers in Dubai/UAE

my family and many of their friends worked in hotels and loved it far better opportunities for them and better pay than their own country

again these blanket statements of those poor people 🙄

my family and many of their friends worked in hotels and loved it far better opportunities for them and better pay than their own country

Well, I wasn't expecting you to say that.

Oh no wait.

I was.

So, to summarise, everyone and everything in Dubai is marvellous. Women, migrant workers, gay activists, literally everyone, is pretty much fine. Anyone who thinks that Bad Things Happen In Dubai just needs to stop being so silly and biased. Who needs transparency, equality and protections embedded in law when you've got People Who Are Alright Everywhere?

Have you told Amnesty International, incidentally? They've got a bee in their bonnet about Dubai as well.

I've had this in the Middle East. I went to a coffee shop that did breakfast and ordered a spanish-style omelette. It came in a hot pan.

As the (Filipina, I think) waitress brought the food over, she lost control of her tray and ended up sliding the hot pan onto the table towards me. It would have ended up in my lap if I hadn't put my hand out to stop it, which burned my palm.

I ouch-ed and then showed her my palm and said "That burned me". She said .. nothing. Just looked nervous and scuttled off. It was only once I'd run it under the cold tap in the loo that I realised she was terrified that I would complain, and she might get sacked. So I said nothing. I wish she had brought a damp rag though.

I’ve not said everything in Dubai is marvellous. I don’t particularly like the country much to my families dismay I’ve pointed out if you travel to countries where you have high levels of poverty that are popular ie. India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, parts of South America, Thailand, Vietnam, parts of the Caribbean people there are terribly exploited our costs are kept fairly low so staying in a high end international hotel or a budget hostel you are part of the exploitation cycle but people rather pretend they don’t notice and get on their high horse about Dubai

and many migrants working in Dubai don’t have the chances back at home, they get paid better in Dubai than their home countries to work in hotels stop seeing things just through an extremely privileged western view where all workers there are miserable, all women can’t make decisions. To many it’s a better life than they have at home they can send money home.

of course Dubai (and Singapore come to mind) should have better laws to protect their migrant workers, all workers and women’s rights but why is this not said when someone is planning a trip to Goa or Sri Lanka etc it’s snobbery as Dubai is seen as tacky of you feel that strongly about the rights of woman and workers you really should limited your travel options to very few countries

Im we aware of my privilege, I’m aware that western views are often so patronising I’m also aware that o have been part of the cycle of exploitation at least I will own it not that I don’t care but like most people o can look the other way when it suits me to

Chavs follow the chavs there. Would not appeal to me at all, all fake and women treated like crap there.

Are women treated worse there than in other countries such as Egypt?

Chavs follow the chavs there. Would not
appeal to me at all, all fake and women treated like crap there.

So you haven’t been? So how do you know your statements are true?

Isn't it just! 😵‍💫

Dubai is not a country I plan to visit. It's too far away for me.

Are women treated worse there than in other countries such as Egypt?
I live in Egypt and I've lived in Qatar, I'd say Egypt is extreamly back wards compared. High rates of FGM, girls commiting suicide because their fathers won't let them out to see their friends, women sacked from their jobs for a leaked video of them belly dancing. It's a shit show. Sometimes I feel like il living in the Middle ages
That is what I thought and I posted on page one about FGM, I wonder why Egypt doesn’t get the same hate?

Unfortunately these days if you look at travel through a strong moral/ ethical lens, there are many places off limits, a few that spring to mind include Thailand, Indonesia, China,The Philippines) parts of Africa and large swathes of the Middle East, of course there are more, including our own borders (treatment of immigrants, cosying up to Oligarchs when it suited us, etc). The UAE is not perfect but for some it provides a good holiday which in turn provides migrant workers with money that can be sent home the likes of which are unlikely to be earned on home turf (The Philippines as one example). The intelligent traveller will travel in order to see and learn what is good and bad about a country.

It's not a country.

Not in low level positions, I'll bet.

Westerners and Caucasians never work in those.

Workers are treated very very differently in the ME by race, country of origin, employment level etc.

This is exactly what I wanted to discuss- is ethical world travel even possible?- but the thread has gone awry.

Yes, and that would impact her entire family back home.

Lol ar ppl comparing it to westerners working in the higher positions.

The wider cultural, political and ethical issues aside, Dubai sucks big time and is massively overrated in my opinion.

I actually would love to go and see it for myself. I think it would be fascinating just to see how things work there, but a) I'd worry about my own safety and b) I don't feel right spending money there and essentially supporting the place.

With Egypt, I think bacuse all the workers here are Egyptian, so they don't mistreat migrants like the ME do, also they have the Pyramids to visit and it makes you think its a mystical place (it's really not). It isn't so obvious here, if you came for a holiday you wouldn't really see it so much. The women seem to go about their business (in malls or coffee shops) and seem pretty average, its not really until you scratch under the service that you see it. I also suspect most people visiting Egypt stay in 5* hotels, so it all seems pretty good. The staff at the hotels are Egyptian so you've not got Filipinos waiting on you hand and foot. Men rule everything here. They are everywhere. I'm fed up of seeing them. They are like a locus infestation.

Locust!

my family are not all western or Caucasian

some in fairly senior positions others are not one is a chef/DJ

and if you want to travel ethically there are many many other countries that should be on that list but they aren’t are they 🙄

@DailySheetWasher. Sorry my mistake it's a city. Anyway I can't afford to visit there and it's too far to travel.