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Tables at Gaia, one of Dubai’s hottest dining spots, are booked up to two weeks in advance, and the vast amount of businesspeople streaming out of nearby offices keeps staff on their toes.
“Every day feels like Friday,” said Evgeny Kuzin, chairman and co-founder of Bulldozer Group, which owns and operates Gaia and several other restaurants. They have been hiring new staff in order to meet the increased demand.
Dubai’s economy is bouncing back faster than expected while infection rates in Europe skyrocket and governments tighten restrictions once again. Property sales are at a decade high, and streets are so congested that finding an empty taxi is difficult.
Expo 2020, one of the world’s largest in-person events, was postponed as Covid-19 swept the globe last year, but it is now in full swing, attracting both Dubai residents and visitors escaping new lockdowns that have provoked unrest in Austria, the Netherlands, and other European nations.
The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, on the other hand, has managed to escape a new wave so far. Around 90% of the population has been fully vaccinated, with high-risk individuals receiving booster shots. Although the economy has been open for months, the number of new cases has remained below 100 per day since October. Deaths are uncommon, thanks to a young population and a well-equipped health system.
“The recovery has been faster than we expected,” said Scott Livermore, chief economist at Oxford Economics Middle East in Dubai, who raised his growth forecast for 2021 by about 1% to 5%. “Expo has played a role in that but also the success Dubai has had in avoiding a Delta wave that has allowed the domestic economy to pretty much get back to normal.”
