Dubai – no f-bombs here, just fascination and fires

It has been said many a time by many a CN&CO team member – we’re big on travel, for many reasons – some of which chief señor Carel Nolte outlined in the intro of his latest Bhutan blog post.

As much as I have learnt new things and been fascinated by something different in each city I’ve travelled to, there is one city that manages to blow me away time and time again. That city is Dubai.

Dubai had never been on my bucket list of places to visit before I die, but I’ll tell you something, I’m damn well glad I was persuaded to make a stop over there a few years ago. I had no idea that the one week I would spend there in 2012 would shift my perception about travel, a destination, and PR in general – forever.

I’ve visited Dubai every year since 2012, and every single time I walk around the city I am STILL blown away by what they are developing, and the speed at which they are developing. To say that I’m “captivated” by Dubai would be a pretty severe understatement. (If I was going to drop an F-bomb in this post, it would be here. Because F*%^ me, this city blows my mind!)

The thing that first blew me away about Dubai was how they had taken a desert region, and moulded it into something so incredibly modern, and almost “fairy tale-like.” (I use the term “fairy tale-like” because where else in real life would you come across a man-made island? Before 2001, probably only in fairy tales…)

It’s not just what they have created that captivates me, but more so how they have created tourist attractions and landmarks that are PURE PR GOLD.

Tallest building in the world? PR gold.

Largest shopping mall in the world? PR gold.

The largest man-made island in the shape of a palm tree – that can be seen FROM SPACE? PR GOLD!

The PR nerd in me works overtime when I visit Dubai. Understandably so.

It wasn’t until my third trip to Dubai, when I went on a Desert Safari adventure with Arabian Adventures, that a newfound fascination with Dubai sparked inside of me. During the Desert Safari, I spent a good hour and a half talking to the tour guide, Shan, about all things Dubai. He shared everything he knew and loved about Dubai with me. During our chat he spoke a lot about Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – the current ruler of Dubai, who Shan, and all other Emiratis, hold in very high regard. Shan told me about how the sheikh has the most incredible vision for Dubai and the Arab people, and shed some light on a few of the sheikh’s big plans and developments for Dubai for the next few years. It was interesting to learn that not only is the sheikh a man with vision and drive, but he is proactively and hands-on involved with everything happening in Dubai. When I visited Dubai in 2014, they had just started construction of a tram. Shan told me the sheikh would often visit the tram construction sites to chat to the construction teams and to see how things were moving along. No entourage. No bodyguards. Just the sheikh, of his own accord, engaging with the people who were working toward making his vision for the city a reality. This story of the sheikh struck a chord in me and had me eager to learn more about him, his vision, and what kind of leadership style he had that had built this city into what it is today.

It wasn’t until my most recent trip to Dubai, in December 2015, that I would learn more, in extreme detail, by first-hand account from the sheikh himself. The lessons and insight came from his book titled “My Vision: Challenges In The Race For Excellence”.

“This is a unique book in which Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, examines aspects of the UAE’s unique development experience. This young country is making every effort to achieve excellence and upgrade its status from a regional economic centre into an international hub. It is striving to excel in services, tourism, the knowledge economy and creative human resources in order to reach its ambitious development goals. While addressing the people of Dubai and the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed’s wider audience also includes the Arab world. Dubai’s unique development experience sets a creative example for the Arab world to follow. The book, therefore, represents a message of optimism that if all the constituents of any given society agree to excel in all fields, different cultures and religions can coexist without the slightest problem. The proof he provides is Dubai itself.”

This is one of the most incredible books with the most interesting lessons and insight I have ever come across – but that’s a blog post for another day.

Now, in one swift movement, we head from one f-word (fascination) to the next: fires.

If you were following the news or Twitter over New Year, you’ll have heard about the fire that ravaged up The Address, one of the most iconic hotels in Dubai. The fire broke out a few hours before Dubai’s mammoth NYE fireworks display was set to take place from the Burj Khalifa, which is literally across the road from The Address hotel. I was in Dubai over the festive season, and while I wasn’t anywhere near the Burj Khalifa at the time, I was in the city when the fire happened. Not having wi-fi while on the beach watching the fireworks being set off from the Palm Island meant that I had no idea about the fire. Only when I got back to the hotel and opened up a WhatsApp message from our CN&CO group chat, where Carel asked if I had anything to do with the fire in Dubai, I knew it was time to turn on the news and head straight to Twitter to catch up on what was happening.

The image that CNN was showing of the burning hotel, about an hour after midnight, was insane! My eyes were glued to the screen. I followed Twitter intensely over the next hour to catch up on what was happening. There were contrasting news reports and just as many contrasting opinions from people in the Twitterverse about what was happening, and why.

Dubai received a fair amount of flack from a handful of people on Twitter because they went ahead with their intense fireworks display from the world’s tallest tower, as a building was blazing only a few metres away. These people claimed it was reckless and selfish for Dubai to go ahead. They had a fair point. And to be honest, if I had seen or heard these comments a year or two ago, I might have agreed with those people.

But, here’s why I disagree with that school of thought, and applaud Dubai for so boldly going ahead with a fireworks display that only ever leaves jaws on the floor and eyes beaming with fascination.

At the time of the fire, I had read about 80% of the sheikh’s book, where I came to learn so much about Dubai, their processes, and how the city operates. So when I read those comments of criticism, two things immediately sprung to mind affirming why Dubai would forge on with the fireworks:

1. Dubai is, for the most part, a very young city (in the modern sense), which feels that it has a lot to prove on the global scene. The fireworks display from the Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, is one of the biggest spectacles in the world. In 2014, Dubai broke the Guinness World Record for the World’s Biggest Pyrotechnics Display. Here are a few quick-fire facts (pardon the pun) about the time, effort and money Dubai puts into its NYE spectacle:

• The 2014 NYE show included 500 000 fireworks and lasted for six minutes, though the record was broken within the first 60 seconds.
• It took place in over 400 locations in Dubai, ending with an “artificial sunrise” along the seafront, symbolising a “new dawn” for the city.
• 3 280: The height in feet of the highest fireworks launched in Dubai in 2014.
• 62: The length in miles of waterfront lit up for the record-breaking spectacular.
• 5 000: How many man-hours it took the technicians to ensure the fireworks’ timing was accurate down to the millisecond.
• 10: How many months it took to plan the New Year’s extravaganza.
• 6 million: How much it cost in U.S. dollars to set a new world record for pyrotechnics.
• The spectacle was streamed live, and you can watch the Youtube clip below:

All of that said, one can understand why cancelling the fireworks display was simply not an option. But, going ahead with the fireworks would mean that the officials and people on the ground running the spectacle would had to have done a rapid and intense inspection and analysis of the fire at The Address, and make a very quick call, based on how confident they were that they could contain the fire and host the fireworks at the same time – which brings me to my second point.

Reading the Sheikh’s book, I soon came to learn how efficiently and precisely things are run in Dubai. Not only with processes in the public or private sector, but in everything. They apply immense attention to detail and do thorough research and analysis on each and every project and situation. To have made the call to continue with the fireworks, those running the show in Dubai must’ve been incredibly confident that they had everything under control – which I can believe 100%.

And sure, in hindsight we know that there were no fatalities from the fire, so it’s easy to say “Of course Dubai should have gone ahead with the fireworks! Life goes on, you know.” But if there had been a more dire outcome, maybe my opinion would be different.

But, it is what it is, and I commend those in Dubai who so calmly and confidently handled a seriously tricky situation, which, if any other country had been faced with, would very likely have freaked the F-bomb out!