And hôtelon the artificial island of The Palm, will also be entirely reserved for football fans. Expat Sports says it has seen strong demand for bookings”from Mexico, UK, Europe and India“. “At this rate, we expect the hotel to be fully booked.“, she says.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister of the Emirates and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, indicated that the tourism income had jumped to 5 billion dollars in the first half of 2022, counting on a “strong performance this winter“.
Before the pandemic, Dubai alone received close to 16 million tourists in 2019 against 5.51 million the following year and 7.3 million last year. Outraged “the advantage of being a major tourist destination“, the emirate is distinguished from other Gulf cities by “of the looser social norms on certain cultural aspectslike the alcohol consumption where the dress codes“, underlines James Swanston of Capital economics.
In Qatar, in normal times, the sale of alcohol is limited to one government store and around 30 hotel bars and restaurants. The organizers tried last week to reassure fans by announcing that beer stalls would open for a few hours around the stadiums and in the main Fifa fan zone in Doha.
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