Dubai second only to Egypt

Dubai is second only to Egypt as the largest tourism destination in the Middle East, and presently attracts five million tourists a year, Nakheel Director Wahid Attalla told a conference in Beirut last week. He said the two new Palm islands will add 32,000 hotel rooms to the existing 25,000 in the emirate.

I dont think egypt will hold that position much longer! :)

and do not forget egypt is hundreds of times larger ;)

but this is great numbers

sometimes i think tourism is what keeps egypt alive, so i hope their tourism boom will continue for a long time

What is weird is how they expect to attract 15million tourists to Dubai by around 2009. And the pop. of the whole country is only 3-4m!
It's really going to end up being a tourist town, start getting ready to give directions to loads of lost visitors :D

man a population of only 1.5 million having so many tourists, not wonder dubai is so rich

What to do in Dubai other than leasure activities?

as a normal tourists you maybe just like to enjoy the hotel resort and do a sightseeing tour with some shopping. this is what most people do, then you have the opportunity to go out into the desert for a dune ride

all the other things going on in dubai normal tourists don't notice, the just see there is a lot of construction, but what will be built, they don't know of. maybe just palm jumeirah, even not palm jebel ali

but this will change when all the other projects will be finished and usable

I just hope this construction boom doesn't fizzle out. Just another 10 uninterrupted years of this boom and Dubai will be absolutely awesome.

Dubai will surpass egypt in the few coming years, plus now the blasts in egypt didn't do them any good.

^Yes, its very sad, but I read in the newspaper today that after some research officials concluded that tourism wasnt at all "severely" affected, on the contrary almost no reservations were cancelled all over the country. My freind and I hypothesized that the Europeans thought it was just another blast in Israel because in reality the hotel blast was only a few yards away from the Israeli border.

On the other hand, the Egyptian government's expectation is that tourist arrivals will reach 10 million in the next ten years (ie 2014). Egypt will still probably surpass Dubai this year too because we're witnessing a tourism boom here too, but only this year. Dubai will for sure explode when one or two of these mega-projects are finished.

The tourism to Egypt would only be felt in Sinai where thousands of Israelis went to every year, Israelis will no longer go to Egypt in the near future, the main gainer from that is the city of Eilat which will be even more crowded than it already is nowadays

The Islamic extremists power is on the rise in Egypt. It might change the direction of the country. That would push Dubai ahead !
Dont think there is that much to do in dubai at this time
Give 3 years and oh wow !!

Im sure we all agree that dubai is a much better place, but i think egypt has more to offer. I mean egypt has character and an identity and you feel it just walking down the street. I just wish egypt would clean up a bit and fix some of its infrastructure...

oh yes i agree with that but access is major factor
As is Sensationism in which dubai is becoming all powerful in

I know those of you who have visited Egypt have seen how uncivil most places of the country are. Although it's been like that for a long time there are major signs that say that there's gonna be alot of change in the country. One of which is the new government with all the new "technocrat" ministers who are very business and technology oriented.

And Trances, what do you mean by sensationism?

i suppose he meant sensational things. well if you think about it, bahrain gets 4 million ppl a year, ya i know its mostly gulf ppl, but they're still considered tourists. Dubai is definately goin to cross the 10 million mark in a few years. Just wait.

i mean like hype upsell etc

i dont mean to rude, why are many eyptians so fat and lazy, there ancestors were so hardworking, after all they made the pyramids

Stereotyping...

I know those of you who have visited Egypt have seen how uncivil most places of the country are. Although it's been like that for a long time there are major signs that say that there's gonna be alot of change in the country. One of which is the new government with all the new "technocrat" ministers who are very business and technology oriented.

And Trances, what do you mean by sensationism?

One thing Egypt should do is to give Mubarak a rest.

i dont mean to rude, why are many eyptians so fat and lazy, there ancestors were so hardworking, after all they made the pyramids

they built the pyramids, so they are tired and need to rest

One thing Egypt should do is to give Mubarak a rest.

If I agree to what you guys are saying I might get arrested in a few hours and send to jail for a few years :). But even if this happens, the country will not change because the people have hardly changed ..... mostly to the worse. I believe that the actions of the government is always a reflection of the values that the country's people live by, so I dont believe that a new president is the solution. I'm not really patriotic btw.

If I agree to what you guys are saying I might get arrested in a few hours and send to jail for a few years :). But even if this happens, the country will not change because the people have hardly changed ..... mostly to the worse. I believe that the actions of the government is always a reflection of the values that the country's people live by, so I dont believe that a new president is the solution. I'm not really patriotic btw.

That is what ur govermnet trying to convince you. As its the same how the govermnet trying to full ur head crap that if u have free elections u would have an islamic reigm that would harrase women and christian.You guys can do it. Bahrian had a new demecratic examply and they are doing pretty fine.

How can that be what the government is trying to convince us with. Thats like saying that the government is trying to convince us that "We're not a good government cuz you're not good people". That was just what I believe. I took what you said as an insult because not only did you implicitly imply that I was a politically illiterate and uncultured person that I would believe anything my government says, you also didn't give much thought to my last post (which you have quoted) where I said "Im not really patriotic" which would imply that I dont really believe in my government.

Anyways, back to the point, the reason i said that the actions of any government is always a reflection of the values the people of the country live by is because I have found it very true especially here in Egypt based on my interaction with the other Egyptians of all classes. People's values are messed up here, everyone always wants to be in power whether he deserves it or not and those who are not in power idolize those who are in power and that is why our government is almost a dictatorial one. I dont want to discuss this any further because it a very big issue, and I dont think talking would solve anything, lets just concentrate on Dubai and skyscrapers right now.

I neither meant to insult u nor i agree with u. Ill just stop it here. because i guess my posts would mean an insult in ur dictionery.