Marco Polo first described Dubai and its small creek as a prosperous pearl-fishing port. But with the growth of pearl farming in Japan in the 1930s, the city turned to trading and re-export, building two new harbours for the purpose: Port Râshid to the north, and Jebel Ali to the south, where it set up a vast free zone. Today, Dubai is the world’s third largest re-export hub, occupying a similar place in the Indo-Arabian region to Hong Kong in continental Asia.

 

Dubai is the only city in the Arab world that has embraced globalization, with its booming technology and communications industry, overseas nationals making up 90% of its population of 1 million and the world’s second largest airport in terms of passenger movements. Today, 4 million tourists come to the Emirate of Dubai every year, and projections are forecasting 15 million in 2010 and 40 million by 2015.

 

Dubai owes its prosperity to trade and to luxury and leisure tourism, and is now pursuing a series of hotel mega-projects on artificial islands that have added 120 kilometres to the Emirate’s coastline.