Another strange arrest in backwards Middle East

[sgtbaker]

They actually talking about that in the bottom of the first linked article. They were saying that enforcing these laws is bogging down the court system since there are actually more outsiders in the area, than there are natives to the area. Time and cultural diffusion will, more than likely, evolve Dubai.

 

[quadraginta]

<snip>

My cousin and his wife left primarily because that began to change. This incident suggests that change in continuing. UAE, once one of the most western of Islamic States, is becoming increasingly Fundamentalist.

We're lucky that sort of thing isn't happening here in the U.S.

It can lead to silliness like state school boards mandating the inclusion of creationism in science textbooks.

Oh, ... wait.

 

[SnidelyW]

It just might be the Dubai Department of Tourism office is now doing a lot of hand wringing, given a 2 year old girl has toppled the first domino in a chain leading to the drying up of tourist revenue.

According to 2007 figures cited in the article below, tourism contributed around 18 per cent of Dubai's direct gross domestic product and 29 per cent of its indirect GDP.

http://www.uaeinteract.com/docs/Tourism_contributes_18_to_Dubais_GDP_per_year/23960.htm

When hotel occupancies drop and GDP plummets because tourists decide to visit countries with less stringent public 'decency' standards, the UAE will have to re-sell the entire package a great cost, with no assurances of a return to previous tourist levels.

 

[quadraginta]

It just might be the Dubai Department of Tourism office is now doing a lot of hand wringing, given a 2 year old girl has toppled the first domino in a chain leading to the drying up of tourist revenue.

According to 2007 figures cited in the article below, tourism contributed around 18 per cent of Dubai's direct gross domestic product and 29 per cent of its indirect GDP.

http://www.uaeinteract.com/docs/Tourism_contributes_18_to_Dubais_GDP_per_year/23960.htm

When hotel occupancies drop and GDP plummets because tourists decide to visit countries with less stringent public 'decency' standards, the UAE will have to re-sell the entire package a great cost, with no assurances of a return to previous tourist levels.

I wonder what the percentage of Moslem tourists is, compared to western ones?

I can imagine many Moslem tourists seeking a country with more relaxed standards than their own, but still being quite comfortable with social standards we might find repressive. This tempest may need a pretty small teapot to ever show up as a significant factor in their overall revenue.

 

[SnidelyW]

I wonder what the percentage of Moslem tourists is, compared to western ones?

I can imagine many Moslem tourists seeking a country with more relaxed standards than their own, but still being quite comfortable with social standards we might find repressive. This tempest may need a pretty small teapot to ever show up as a significant factor in their overall revenue.

According to this chart

http://www.dubaitourism.ae/Portals/...istics/A002 2007 Hotel Statistics Summary.pdf

of the 5.8 million hotel guests in 2007, Arabs accounted for about 1.5 million, Asians 1.3 million, Australasia .17 million, Africa .37 million, Europe (incl Russia & CIS) 2 million, and the Americas .47 million.
Adding these up, it seems non Muslim visitors outnumber Muslim visitors about 3 to 1. Time, and the future UAE tourist advert buget will tell.

 

[quadraginta]

According to this chart

http://www.dubaitourism.ae/Portals/...istics/A002 2007 Hotel Statistics Summary.pdf

of the 5.8 million hotel guests in 2007, Arabs accounted for about 1.5 million, Asians 1.3 million, Australasia .17 million, Africa .37 million, Europe (incl Russia & CIS) 2 million, and the Americas .47 million.
Adding these up, it seems non Muslim visitors outnumber Muslim visitors about 3 to 1. Time, and the future UAE tourist advert buget will tell.

I'm assuming, so I'm probably mistaken, but it looks like you decided that all the "not Arab" visitors were not Muslim. I don't think we can be certain of that.

Aside from that I agree with you. Time will tell. One thing that will be difficult will be to tease out tourism lost as a result of negative publicity due to this one case from the vast amount of cash lost to a resort destination selling itself as a Mecca to the obscenely rich in the midst of a sustained global financial meltdown.

I would also suggest that any tourism which is lost as a result of this will consist largely of some subset, probably small, of potential new visitors. The ones who have been going there already I suspect will say to themselves that the culprits should have known better, and won't expect such things to affect them.

Right or wrong, that's the sort of attitude most people take when confronted with the legal entanglements of others. This is the core of the inertia resisting all efforts to improve civil rights, especially when culture and religion are involved.

 

[commandlinegamer]

I just wonder what would happen if a plane load of young Brits headed for Ibiza was diverted to Dubai say due to bad weather, and while they were waiting for it to improve, the crew said "Take a stroll down to the beach; enjoy yourselves.."

 

[mijopaalmc]

I just wonder what would happen if a plane load of young Brits headed for Ibiza was diverted to Dubai say due to bad weather, and while they were waiting for it to improve, the crew said "Take a stroll down to the beach; enjoy yourselves.."

Uh...there are so many things wrong with that hypothetical.

 

[Darat]

I think the issue involving people visiting is much to do with the very rich folk going there, they are the ones that pay the millions for the villas on the nearly created islands and the like. If they start to feel nervous that could really hurt them.

 

[SnidelyW]

I think the issue involving people visiting is much to do with the very rich folk going there, they are the ones that pay the millions for the villas on the nearly created islands and the like. If they start to feel nervous that could really hurt them.

Exactly. I believe it's a fine line the U.A.E. is treading because, as you pointed out, someone has to buy those huge homes, and fill those hotel rooms. Tourists can be a fickle bunch, and when people go away on holiday, do they really want to be on their guard 24/7, especially if it involves something as natural as a kiss when greeting friends? Yikes. Not me.

Not that I have any friends, of course, but what if?

Quadraginta, I was assuming there would be some Muslim visitors from non-arab countries, such as Malaysia and others, but statistically, those would be too small to skew the numbers, so I didn't mention them in my text, allowing anyone who wished to do a more detailed analysis of the chart to do so.

I also rounded some numbers up to keep the numbers clean and sparkly looking, but again, nothing to skew the overall concept.

 

[SnidelyW]

...snip...

I would also suggest that any tourism which is lost as a result of this will consist largely of some subset, probably small, of potential new visitors. The ones who have been going there already I suspect will say to themselves that the culprits should have known better, and won't expect such things to affect them.

Right or wrong, that's the sort of attitude most people take when confronted with the legal entanglements of others. This is the core of the inertia resisting all efforts to improve civil rights, especially when culture and religion are involved.

I think any potential visitor to the U.A.E. who is at all aware might be taking a hard look at what they might be exposing themselves to if they visit.

In this instance we have a young, female estate agent from the U.K. out with a group of friends at a beachside restaurant when a 2 year old girl sees her kissing a friend in greeting, tells her mother, who then has both arrested.

Whether you have visited previously or not, that would shake anyone up, knowing they have to self-censor their 'normal' behaviour or risk jail time and deportation, as well as a fine.

I don't know about you, but any place on the Mediteranean is looking a lot better right now.

 

[Malerin]

Even if it was - so what?

And what about my comments regarding that until 2003 - just 7 years ago - that would have been illegal for me and my partner in the UK?

Wow, quite a bastion of moral relatavists here. Is it so hard to say the Fugitive Slave Act was always immoral, even when it was the law of the land? Was Harriet Tubman nothing more than a criminal for helping slaves escape the South? Does anyone seriously think there's moral equivalency between the governments of America and North Korea? If there's an obscure law is some Middle Eastern country that requires you to participate in the gang rape of a girl seen in public with her ankles showing, would any of you actually go along with it? Didn't think so.

Official sanction by a government /= morally permissible.

 

[gumboot]

I'm assuming, so I'm probably mistaken, but it looks like you decided that all the "not Arab" visitors were not Muslim. I don't think we can be certain of that.

True, but in counter, we also can't be sure that all Arab visitors are Muslims.