I’ve noticed a lot of people from the UK go to Dubai over the last year or two. What’s the appeal?

41 comments

1. No taxes, that’s what’s appealing!

2. It’s an influencer’s wet dream

3. You mean live there or for a holiday? Not sure it’s just the last couple of years, it’s been popular for a decade. The weather and the vast array of restaurants etc is a big draw, plus it’s tax free if you live/work there.

4. The type of people who go there are the type of people from these reality shows, like Geordie shore. People who use social media a lot. You know the type, akways trying to show how good a life they are living.
   Usually fake tans, fake teeth, fake boobs…ie its all fake.

5. Instagram and posing. I went for a month for a work and cannot fathom moving there, unless you’re getting an amazing salary and saving it all to leave.

6. Arseholes mate.

7. Nice hotels, fancy shops and restaurants, hot weather all year. Is it really that difficult to realise why this appeals to some people?

8. If you’re Muslim it’s somewhere you can go for a beach holiday and you know the food will be halal, I had a manager who went there regularly because of this

9. so you can put on instagram that youre in Dubai.

10. I visited Dubai to see a friend recently and I had never been to a place with so little culture and history, it was shocking and I hated it. She hates it there too compared to her home of Syria.

    I imagine if you’re the kind of person who likes resort holidays and shopping that it might appeal to you.

11. We are literally in the process of organising our first trip to Dubai.

    Me, SO + 2 year old daughter are fans of resort holidays, and the entire city of Dubai basically looks like a resort, that’s the biggest appeal for me.

    Everything feels new, cutting edge and very considered, loads of variety, everything is either the biggest, newest, craziest, edgiest thing at what seems like quite reasonable price points all within walking distance of each other, and it’s something we haven’t done before.

12. I have lived there for years. Spent half of my childhood there. It is just a place filled with fancy hotels and good weather (depending on when you go). It is filled with rich people and amazing cars. Only reason people will go on a holiday. There is no history or culture there at all. They only want to make the place fancy and make it instagramable/ tik tok.

13. Good transport links, good high class service and great weather

14. There’s no appeal. Not if you’re a woman or LGBTQ+. Anybody who holidays in any cesspit like Dubai are not allies 🤷🏼

15. Because it’s home from home, I went once , think Blackpool but hot.

16. Milton Keynes in the desert

17. A book by Janice Hallet.

18. because they just follow the crowd and don’t have a kind of their own. they see celebs go there and want to copy them becuase they live very sad existences. can’t even get a bit of green or a drink without risking prison time. it’s sad rewlly that people visit such a place when there are places on this planet with so much culture, history and nice peopl, not vile dirty oil barons

19. I have visited dubai 6 times for family holidays, although the last time I was there was August 2016 but going again later this year

    I like going for the Waterparks, Malls, the heat, Burj Khalifa, souks, the great transportation

20. Earning over double what is achievable in the UK as a teacher and tax free.

21. I went to Dubai for the first time last year. It was a business trip.

    Good points: friendly people, architecture, food, relatively liberal vs other emirates, good standard hotel and service, feels half a step up from Canary Wharf (which I’m no fan of), pleasant weather in December.

    Not so: a population comprising criminals, poseurs, migrant workers and a handful of emiratis, for at least 3 months of the year it must be even more unbearable due to the heat, an odd mix of concrete, glass, steel, gold and cars.

    Think Torremolinos without the culture. Yes, I know that’s really hard to imagine but it’s the best I can do. I won’t be going there on holiday.

22. It’s basically Terminal 5 but bigger

23. Warm weather, especially between October – March when it’s cold in the UK with short days.

    There’s a lot to be said for going around in summer clothes during our winter.

24. Winter sun, I hate the cold miserable weather in the uk. Dubai is accessible clean, good transport and food. I’m not going to be educated or see some culture. I just want a break from the depression in the uk.

25. You couldn’t pay me to go there. Not a chance.

26. The appeal is the ability to say, ‘I’ve been to Dubai’.

    The same effect can be achieved by lying.

27. These comments are hilarious, I’ve travelled extensively and every cultural and historical site is just as filled with ignorant Instagramers as Dubai is.

28. Been a couple of times with work. Not my idea of a fun holiday.

    Walked into one mall and the first half a dozen shops I saw were all familiar UK High street names.

    The only thing I did get a good deal on was jewellery from a guy in an old souk. I can’t remember where exactly it was (it was 11 years ago…funnily enough, I’m sitting on the same ship right now).

29. influencers are clueless fuckwitts, so Dubai is perfect for them and their army of fuckwitt followers .

30. Never understood the appeal, not on my list to visit ever tbh.

31. There’s tonnes of advertising for holidays in Dubai, people are easily led.

32. Money.

    And this had been happening for decades.

    They pay very well. I have a colleague who was offered early 3 times the pay for the exact same job.

    The brits go for a few years and make a tonne of money and move back, hopefully with a lot in their pocket.

33. It’s a modern Muslim state that is built and carried by slavery.
    Unless you are into slavery, I have no idea why anyone would go there.

34. Luxury experience at middle-class prices

35. There are some absolute arseholes in the comments. You can’t understand why people would want to go to a place with great weather, great restaurants, great shopping, good nights out, and a thousand other things to do?

36. Cost of living crisis here. It’s cheaper there.

37. It’s a much less authoritarian regime than here I guess.

38. people like visiting different places and cultures. yes Dubai has problems but what country doesn’t? it also has some good things about it

39. A lot of people in the uk want to become exactly like the air headed love island type, all about image and no personality/intelligence.

    People just prioritise status and possessions than actual education or experiences.

40. Spent some time working in Dubai on and off over the last 10 years.

    When people ask about it who have never been, I always say the same thing:

    If you really must go, then you do not need more than 3 days there, max. Tie it in with a trip elsewhere, with Dubai being a stop off point.

    Once you’ve been to the huge mall (if that’s your thing), looked up at/gone up the tallest building in the world, visited the (man made) beaches and maybe gone dune buggying in the desert, there really is not much else to do that you can’t do elsewhere, but vastly cheaper and in a far less ‘false’ setting.

    Eating out/drinking is very expensive. Half decent hotels are very expensive. Basically everything is expensive (except taxis, actually).

    October to March time, the weather is bearable, yet still very humid. The rest of the year is awful.

    You can’t really walk anywhere, you need taxis (as above, they’re actually pretty reasonably priced and there’s load of them).

    The place is very artificial and has no heartbeat to it. The locals don’t mix with anyone who isn’t from there.

    For those that reside there, the inequality based on what passport you have is horrendous.

    Ultimately, people see pictures and videos of the impressive looking beaches, glitzy hotels and restaurants, ‘influencers’ ‘living the dream’ in their amazing penthouse apartments overlooking the beach and want to check it out, which is fair enough.

    But the reality is it’s a pretty shallow place and costs a fortune to be there.

41. I stopped off there for 3 days at the start of my honeymoon. I quite liked it. 🤷🏻‍♀️