Mark Twain once famously quipped, on seeing his own obituary printed in error by a newspaper:? “Rumours of my passing have been greatly exaggerated”.
The same could have been said by Dubai at any point over the past three years. Even at the height of the debt crisis, when newspapers the world over were fighting with one another to do the city down, they all missed the point.
Sure, the mega real estate projects and developments, and the luxury malls and the 7-star hotels captivated the world’s attention. And so, when real estate, retail and tourism took a hit, it was obviously game over for Dubai, no?
Far from it. Dubai has never been about just hotels, real estate, mega projects, or bling. At its heart, this thriving city has been built on strong foundations of trade and tolerance, two things that have gone hand in hand, and helped the city establish itself as a world-class logistics and commerce hub.