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Fortune
Avenue, UAE
DUBAI:
A MODEL DESTINATION
 Backed
by its innovative approach, commitment to quality
and ambition to excel, Dubai has been defying the
global trends, including the 9/11
developments.
In the past decade, Dubai has
stunned the world with its mind-boggling growth and
its ambitious developments.
The vision and ambitions of His
Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of
Defense, is guiding the emirate towards the path of
progress.
Its aggressive expansion agenda
is the fruit of an inspirational public-private
sector partnership and government's unwavering
determination to be a model business and leisure
destination.
The fourth year of the New
Millennium was special in more than one way for the
emirate. 2004 will go down in the history of the
enterprising emirate as the 'golden year' for its
vibrant economy, especially the fast-expanding
tourism industry.
 For
the first time in its history, Dubai played host to
over five million hotel guests. No small
achievement for a destination that practically
started its global marketing in 1997 after the
Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing
(DTCM) was established, replacing a promotion board
that existed for nine years.
Like the legendary and beautiful
Arabian horse, Dubai is galloping ahead on its
competitive tracks with a grace that dazzles the
world.
Careful planning and exemplary
execution of multi-million projects - quite a few
of them well ahead of their schedules &endash; have
made Dubai a byword for success.
The DTCM Director General, Mr.
Khalid A bin Sulayem, says: "Tourism has been
shaping our economy and contributed enormously in
giving new directions of growth and expansion for
Dubai. We are working towards matching the
expectations of the world that has posed immense
confidence in us. We are aiming to move a few steps
further with confidence and the world keeps looking
at Dubai with admiration and amazement. We have
crossed a major milestone in our long journey. As
far as we could see, the future appears
bright."
Unlike several other established
and emerging destinations, Dubai posted spectacular
growth in the year 2004 in almost all the economic
spheres, especially tourism, civil aviation, cargo,
trading, real estate and investments.
The performance speaks for
itself and offers points to ponder as to where
Dubai is heading in 2005 and beyond.
Dubai's Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) registered 16.7 per cent growth touching AED
100 billion in 2004, as measured by current prices.
Most of Dubai's economic sectors broke all the
previous growth records.
The Department of Economic
Development (DED) says the strong growth would
continue throughout 2005 and projected to touch
AED110 billion and achieve 10 per cent growth at
current prices.
Dubai GDP grew AED98.1 billion
in 2004, up from AED84.1 billion in 2003, AED62.3
billion in 2000 and AED41.2 billion for the year
1995.
The accumulated annual growth of
Dubai's economy in the last decade comes to 10 per
cent, the highest rate of growth in the
world.
The factors that contributed to
the phenomenal performance included government's
unlimited support for the private sector coupled
with dramatic increase in local spending, the
constant growth of non-oil sectors and the
sustained high oil prices.
The performance indicators also
reflect the success of its economic diversification
policy and the maturity and vitality of the economy
to resist unforeseen circumstances faced by one or
other sectors.
Although oil contribution to the
GDP grew 10.9 per cent in 2004, the corresponding
growth of 17 per cent in the contribution of
non-oil sectors enabled Dubai's GDP to reduce its
dependency on oil to 6 per cent in 2004 down from 7
per cent in 2003.
The contribution of non-oil
sectors to the emirate's GDP has increased from AED
78.22 billion representing 93.4 per cent in 2003,
to AED 91.5 billion representing 94.3 per cent in
2004. This is a significant increase when compared
to AED 55.9 billion in 2000 and AED 34 billion in
1995.
The positive growth in 2004 was
clearly reflected in the continuous inflow of
foreign capital - a trend that s expected to be
maintained with the prevailing lucrative return on
investment in key sectors.
In addition, the aggressive
initiatives by the government and large companies
have helped local and international interest rates
to stabilize at low levels, encouraging private
investments and offering opportunities for a wide
spectrum of segments.
Economic indicators showed a
quantum leap in the construction sector for the
third year in line, making it one of the key
elements of growth besides trade, tourism and
aviation.
The growth in cross sector
relations has further vitalized these sectors with
the increase in tourist numbers having a positive
impact on trade and services, tourism and trade
benefiting from the continuous growth in the
services sector and the exceptional growth of the
construction sector creating similar positive
impact on trade, services and banking.
The construction sector achieved
the highest growth rate among Dubai's GDP
components for 2004, registering 29 per cent growth
and lifting its contribution to AED11.1 billion up
from AED 8.6 billion in 2003. When compared to the
sector's contribution of AED5 billion in 2000 and
AED3.4 billion in 1995, the figures offer a clear
indication of the increasing number of quality real
estate developments by public and private
sectors.
The real estate sector itself
achieved the second highest growth rate, with 22
per cent growth in returns, which increased to
AED10.3 billion in 2004 compared to AED 8.4 billion
in 2003. Comparative figures for 2000 and 1995
stand at AED 6 billion in and AED 4.3 billion,
respectively.
The record 16.6 per cent growth
rate in the industrial sector, with its
contribution to the GDP increasing to AED 15
billion compared to AED 12.9 billion in the year
2003, make it the second largest individual
contributor. The industrial sector's contribution
to Dubai's GDP had been AED10 billion in 2000 and
AED4.6 billion in 1995.
Telecommunications, transport,
travel and freight sector succeeded in enhancing
its lead position as the largest contributor to the
emirate's GDP, growing by 19.3 per cent to AED16.24
billion in 2004 from AED13.6 billion in 2003. The
Trade sector alone grew by 14.7 per cent from
AED12.9 billion in 2003 to AED14.8 billion in
2004.
The contribution of the
financial sector increased to AED9.8 billion in
2004 from AED8.6 billion in 2003, a growth rate of
13 per cent. In the tourism sector the hospitality
and catering alone achieved 16.4 per cent growth in
2004 to AED4.4 billion from AED3.7 billion in 2003,
while the governmental services sector contribution
grew four per cent from AED7.2 billion to AED7.5
billion.
The year also recorded 20.2 per
cent growth in passengers at the state-of-the-art
Dubai International Airport. A total of 21.7
million passengers passed through the airport last
year as compared to 18.06 in 2003.
Cargo movement registered 18.26%
growth with total freight movement of 1,111,647
tonnes in 2004 as compared to 939,966 tonnes in
2003.Aircraft movement has also shown growth of
16.21% with 195,620 movements as compared to
168,511 movements in 2003.
The continuous growth at Dubai
International Airport verifies the fact that Dubai
is now the business and leisure destination of the
region. Over the years, the Department of Civil
Aviation has continuously stressed on maintaining a
very high standard for all the services and
facilities provided and this has paid off. Dubai
has continuously attracted new airlines and can
truly be regarded as a hub with 106 airlines and
160 destinations.
In 2005, the department expects
around 25 million passengers using the airport.
Bearing in mind the general growth of Dubai and
specially Emirates airline, according to
projections by 2010, the airport will witness
passenger throughput of 60 million. Peak passenger
movement was in the month of August with 2.05
million passengers.
Dubai Duty Free achieved record
sales of $500 million (AED1.8 billion) in 2004 and
the half billion dollar and the milestone
represents a 32 increase over last year and
underlines the operation's global status among the
top three airport retailers in the
world.
The operation witnessed
significant growth across all categories with top
categories such as gold increasing by 34 per cent
while perfumes climbed to the number two spot with
a 38 per cent increase in sales. Sales of
electronics goods rose by 24 per cent, while
cameras and accessories rose by 47per
cent.
In the past twelve months, Dubai
Duty Free sold over 41 million products and
recorded close to 11 million transactions. The
month of December was a record month while on
December 20th, which marked the operation's 21st
anniversary; daily sales reached a remarkable $3.1
million (AED11.3 million).
Dubai Ports Authority has
reported 24% growth in its handling operations and
set a cargo traffic record of 6.4 million
containers for the year.
Dubai's port facilities rank the
city as the world's 11th largest port operator.
More than 100 shipping lines are served by DPA.
Dubai's ports will expand their cargo-handling
capacity further through an ongoing four-phase,
AED4.6 billion expansion project.
The plan includes the
construction of docking areas, new wharfs,
container yards and extension and deepening of the
present docks to be able to handle largest ships.
The plan is to be implemented in four
phases.
After completion, Dubai should
be able to handle 21.8 million containers a year by
2020.
The Dubai Financial Market's
(DFM) capitalization increased more than 100
percent in 2004 compared with the last
year.
The DFM's market capitalization
rose from $14.3 billion in 2003 to $28.6 billion
this year. On the hand, trading volumes have also
witnessed phenomenal growth in the last three
years, rising from $267 million in 2001 to more
than $9.6 billion.
Another indicator of increasing
global confidence in Dubai is the mounting number
of companies coming to the Dubai Media City,
strengthening its position further as a regional
media hub and one of the leading international
media centers, a position that it has succeeded in
attaining in four years since its
launch.
Presently, the DMC hosts over
860 companies, including 80 television and radio
stations, 140 magazines besides the Head Quarters
for media production companies and over 12,000
professionals working in them.
There are no vacant offices at
the moment. However, in 2005 there will be a space
of 400,000 sq ft for being rented to companies who
wish to join.
The construction work for the
five towers is expected to be complete between July
and December 2005. The waiting list includes more
than 70 companies and with 25-30 companies joining
DMC monthly on an average.
The Dubai Technology and Media
Free Zone (TECOM) will witness huge expansions to
include 8 million sq ft in the coming four years
through the 30 towers which are to be built for
offices and accommodation.
The expansion will also include
International Media Production Zone (IMPZ) which
adopted the same idea as DMC by creating the first
dedicated trade zone created in the region for
media-related production. The first production
cluster in IMPZ will focus on the printing
industry.
Against the backdrop of Dubai's
phenomenal successes in different domains,
especially tourism industry, and taking into
account the ambitious projects that are taking
shape or planned for completion by the end of this
decade, the DTCM has set in motion the process for
producing strategy plan for the 2005-2010
period.
For further information, please
contact:
*Mohammed Abdul Mannan,
Executive, Media Relations
Email: mmannan@dubaitourism.ae
*Shilpi Pillai, Officer, Media Relations
Email: spillai@dubaitourism.ae
Dubai Department of Tourism and
Commerce Marketing
P.O. Box 594, Dubai - United Arab Emirates
Tel: +9714 2230000 Fax: +9714 2230022
Web sites
http://www.dubaitourism.ae
http://www.uae-pages.com/tourism/entering-dubai.html
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