Expats pour cold water on Dubai safety poll
Expats living in Dubai have questioned the results of a UK-based travel agency’s poll that named Dubai as one of five destinations where Britons felt the least safe.
The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi reported that some 2,916 people completed the Sunshine.co.uk survey and named the riskiest destinations they had travelled to within the past three years.
Dubai came in fifth, behind Jamaica, Bulgaria, South Africa and Mexico, which topped the list.
According to the site’s co-founder, Chris Brown, tourists said their major concerns were related to alcohol and drug offences.
He was quoted as saying there was a “stigma attached to the emirate that may dissuade British tourists from visiting”.
Despite his claim, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing records show that more than 700,000 visitors from the UK stayed in Dubai hotels last year.
Mark Beer, the chairman of the 2000-strong British Business Group, Dubai & Northern Emirates, took issue with the findings.
“With more than 240 nationalities living and working together in an environment of safety and security, it is extraordinary to suggest that anyone should feel threatened coming here,” Beer said.
He questioned whether or not the real issue was regarding the treatment of visitors who broke the law.
“Although alcohol is available, public drunkenness, illegal drug use and violence is not tolerated. I, for one, do not have a problem with this and if that is the type of tourist that is being put off from coming to the UAE, then one wonders if that is so bad?”
If some Brits are fearful, their concerns are not showing up in visitor arrival figures.
Occupancy rates have surged for hotels and hotel apartments in the emirate since a wave of unrest hit the Middle East.
Hotel occupancy in Dubai increased by 7.9 per cent in January compared with the same month in 2010, data from STR Global showed.
Some 80,000 British expats live in Dubai.
Ian Jarrett
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