Page 126 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

110 Dubai & Co.

bars and nightclubs in its hotels, which are active with tourists and
expatriates. Personal attire is not strictly regulated, and you will
often see tourist and expatriate women in tube tops and miniskirts
in the same hotel lobby as Emirati women dressed in traditional
robes and head scarves. A female American colleague of ours who
visited Dubai on business packed a suitcase full of long skirts and
tops only to spend a week in disbelief at how scantily clad other
foreign women were in malls, restaurants, and bars.
While the international media often sensationalizes the lifestyle
freedoms of Dubai (the emirate is often called the Las Vegas of the
Middle East), Dubai is not a binary society composed of puritanical tra-
ditionalists on the one hand and ultramodern hedonists on the other.
The emirate’s policies were designed to make the place hospitable to
all—including the European business traveler or expatriate who likes
a glass of wine with his or her dinner. Dubai’s permissive environ-
ment, however, is in stark contrast with that of some of its neighbors,
and this has made the emirate more visitor friendly for many.
Abu Dhabi has a much more conservative social environment
than Dubai. Abu Dhabi has the feel of an Arab city, with Arabic spo-
ken more frequently than in Dubai. People dress more conserva-
tively—not by law, but as a matter of custom. Alcohol is served in
hotels, and bars, and nightclubs are emerging, but not nearly as rap-
idly as in Dubai. Abu Dhabi’s form of relaxed lifestyle is more like
that of a traditional Middle Eastern city in which conservative
norms are preserved but strict rules of dress and social behavior are
not enforced.

(USUALLY) HEALTHY COMPETITION
While certainly united as a federation, the emirates of the UAE
retain their distinct identities and do engage in subtle rivalry and
competition. Abu Dhabi executives will, for example, privately
express how important—”unlike Dubai”—it is to them to preserve
their traditional culture and social environment. Dubai’s movers
and shakers, at the same time, often consider themselves the real
drivers of change in the country despite officially being the
second-fiddle emirate that can never control the federal govern-
ment. The other emirates carve out their niches as well, eager not to
be left behind as the UAE advances onto the global stage.