Dubai - reality check

[Brendan R]

good day,
could people in Dubai or people that have visited Dubai recently give me some feedback on what they really see in terms of:

- daily traffic : is it still a pain to commute between the Royal Mirage and the Gold Souk for instance at peak time?

- do people still fight for taxis, I remember someone jumping in the taxi I was in a few months ago just to secure it so that when I would be done with my trip he would be sure he would have one, no matter where I was going. At the time people where waiting up to 3 hours to find a taxi. Has this changed?

- Are the malls full? Are there a lot of tourists? What is the quality of the tourists? Do they spend or are hey affected by the economic situation. My belief is that tourists are still coming as they booked and paid for their holidays before the crisis. The real slowdown in the hospitality business will come after spring break. What do you think?

As an anecdote, I checked prices for hotels in Dubai for spring break and couldn't find any good deal. The Jumeirah Group hotels ask for prices in the range of AED 2500 to 3000.I remember when staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel used to cost USD 100 per night, that was 2002. Holiday demand for Dubai seems to stay strong or maybe the various groups are in denial and do not want to start dropping prices yet with occupancy rates still high due to previous bookings.

What are your thoughts on all this?

thanks
Brendan

 

[financier888]

good day,
could people in Dubai or people that have visited Dubai recently give me some feedback on what they really see in terms of:

- daily traffic : is it still a pain to commute between the Royal Mirage and the Gold Souk for instance at peak time?

There is still traffic going to the Gold Souk as this is the oldest and most dense part of Dubai - hardly a barometer for the overall traffic - which is definetly down.
- do people still fight for taxis, I remember someone jumping in the taxi I was in a few months ago just to secure it so that when I would be done with my trip he would be sure he would have one, no matter where I was going. At the time people where waiting up to 3 hours to find a taxi. Has this changed?

People are still fighting with taxi drivers - that hasn't changed...however, there are plenty of taxi's - taxi biz way off ! - you won't have that problem anymore

- Are the malls full? Are there a lot of tourists? What is the quality of the tourists? Do they spend or are hey affected by the economic situation. My belief is that tourists are still coming as they booked and paid for their holidays before the crisis. The real slowdown in the hospitality business will come after spring break. What do you think?

Many, many malls are way off!! very little traffic. You will still see the MOE busy - but the retailers are hurting. Malls like Burgemon - has very little traffic these days, other malls worse, some slightly better. You're correct - there are still large tour groups coming in as they have been booked and paid for months ago - going forward - there will be far less due to the global crisis.

As an anecdote, I checked prices for hotels in Dubai for spring break and couldn't find any good deal. The Jumeirah Group hotels ask for prices in the range of AED 2500 to 3000.I remember when staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel used to cost USD 100 per night, that was 2002. Holiday demand for Dubai seems to stay strong or maybe the various groups are in denial and do not want to start dropping prices yet with occupancy rates still high due to previous bookings.

I think if you are booking online - you won't see lower prices.. There was an article in the paper about two months ago that stated that the Atlantis was renting out rooms during the week at US $40!!! I also heard that some of the 5 star hotels on SZR - like Fairmont, etc - were offering rooms AED 500 - AED 600 during the week.. with occupancy dropping off - you should be able to find far better deals that 2,500 - 3,000 - In four star hotels - like the Capitol - still close to every where - you can book rooms for 500 -600... unless you want to stay in the Jumeriah area and prepared to pay the price.... Also depends if any events are going on at the time you intend to book........ Prices are dropping but they aren't promoting it for obvious reasons...

What are your thoughts on all this?

thanks
Brendan

responses above in BOLD

 

[PropGuy]

daily traffic : is it still a pain to commute between the Royal Mirage and the Gold Souk for instance at peak time?

yup

- do people still fight for taxis, I remember someone jumping in the taxi I was in a few months ago just to secure it so that when I would be done with my trip he would be sure he would have one, no matter where I was going. At the time people where waiting up to 3 hours to find a taxi. Has this changed?

i don't use taxi so I don't know.

- Are the malls full? Are there a lot of tourists? What is the quality of the tourists? Do they spend or are hey affected by the economic situation. My belief is that tourists are still coming as they booked and paid for their holidays before the crisis. The real slowdown in the hospitality business will come after spring break. What do you think?

I only visit 3 malls: MOE, Ibn Battuta, and Bur Juman; they seem busy as usual. Dubai mall seems busy too, but it is new.

As for possible slowdown in April I don't know, I don't have crystal ball. But I believe there will be slowdown in 2009, because whole world is going through a recession, and maybe it will get worse. Dubai's economy is dependent on other places in the world.

 

[Brendan R]

gentlemen thanks for your replies

 

[Wannaberich]

If the population of Dubai hasnt decreased,which it seems it hasnt,then traffic shouldn't be too much affected.If it is quieter then maybe theres alot of people who have lost their jobs who are just staying at home.
As for the malls,its difficult to make a true comparison with this time last year as last year u didnt have Dubai Mall.This place is obviously going to take a certain amount of business away from the other malls.
Also,during 4 visits to Dubai througout 2007,every time I went to Festival City mall it was always empty.So what does that tell you.

 

[TommyC]

- daily traffic : is it still a pain to commute between the Royal Mirage and the Gold Souk for instance at peak time?

Traffic slightly down in general, peak times are as usual apart from being somewhat shorter. Actually don't think I've been stuck in a traffic jam for a month now, it's easing up. Could be partly because of a few new roads ready.

- do people still fight for taxis, I remember someone jumping in the taxi I was in a few months ago just to secure it so that when I would be done with my trip he would be sure he would have one, no matter where I was going. At the time people where waiting up to 3 hours to find a taxi. Has this changed?

Only good time for cabdrivers nowadays is thursday and friday nights. Business is slow for them as hotel occupancy levels (their main source of business) is down. Only time you have to fight (not really) for a cab is if going home from DCC during the evening peak, always a queue but usually just takes 20 min or so nowadays compared to the hours it did before.

- Are the malls full? Are there a lot of tourists? What is the quality of the tourists? Do they spend or are hey affected by the economic situation. My belief is that tourists are still coming as they booked and paid for their holidays before the crisis.

Malls (social meeting points = lots of people just hanging around) are still busy though to a lesser extent, I see much less tourists (MoE and DCC) and much less bags indicating that people are actually shopping. Like stated before, the first few months isn't really the problem since those vacations were primarly booked before the crisis, but it will most likely go down considerably.

 

[desert dream]

As far as malls are concerned its a disaster..2 new malls online at the worst time..Dubai Mall..and Dubai Marina Mall...also Oasis Mall (the one that got burnt on SZR) is almost ready..
how will also these malls compete...imho Retail will be hit very hard..and kiss goodbye to luxury

 

[samsaf]

I'm not much of a malls person. Plus I work in Sharjah. However, my brother who works in Dubai has told me that while the traffic has decreased during the month of December, it has acutally increased during January.

While he hopes that he would see some sort of decrease... nothing so far...

Go figure..