UAE: Dubai

Over the course of the past decade, Dubai has become synonymous with luxury goods. According to the Dubai Statistics Centre, the retail, wholesale and repair segment accounted for 30.7% of GDP in 2011, up slightly on 30.1% in 2010 and 29.7% in 2009, and much of which is accounted for by the high-end segment. The emirate acts as a retail centre for...

While many international retailers in North America and the EU have been forced to tighten their belts over the past three years, their counterparts in Dubai have benefitted from steady expansion. Indeed, the emirate’s international and luxury retailers recovered relatively quickly from the global economic crisis, despite falling incomes throughout...

In the four years since the 2008-09 economic downturn swept the world, Dubai’s hotel industry has experienced substantial volatility. Occupancy and revenue per available room (RevPAR) rates dropped substantially in the wake of the crisis, especially at high-end luxury properties, as wealthy leisure tourists made an effort to reduce their...

The construction sector in Dubai was hit hard by the 2008-09 global economic downturn. Indeed, the constraints on financing slowed the pace of building work altogether and made many investors cautious about stumping up money before projects were completed. In mid-2011 and 2012 the market began to turn around slightly, buoyed by steady development...