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Opinion Columnists

The media war against Dubai... Coronavirus is not the reason!

The reasons behind the wild media campaigns against Dubai



Illustrative file image: Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine administered to a resident in Dubai
Image Credit: Dubai Media office

It is a new campaign targeting Dubai, not the first of its kind, and it certainly will not be the last. Whenever this city, which dazzled the world, achieves new success, the arrows turn to it, and the media war against it rages, from the Western media, specifically the British media which launched a frenzied campaign on Dubai, during the global financial crisis, and portrayed the city as being on the brink of economic collapse.

However the British media was surprised by Dubai's recovery faster than others, and it was shocked that the bubble that they were promoting would burst, would become a destination of the finance and tourism, and achieve economic and financial targets, that most of cities in the world failed to accomplish.

It is not Dubai that caused the global financial crisis, but America and the West did, yet Dubai has been affected economically and financially, like other parts of the world, and this is quite normal given the global aspect of the city and its ties with the West and the East, North and South. However, it quickly recovered before all, and its economy resumed performing better, in economy and tourism, the fact that made it-the British media- even crazier!

Today, history repeats itself, it is not Dubai that caused the spread of the coronavirus, but the everybody knows that the new mutated and rapidly spreading strain of the virus, was identified in Britain, then spread to many countries, very quickly, to the point that many countries had added Britain to their travel ban.

File image: Dubai topped the list of the largest airports in the number of international travelers, for the fifth year in a row, with the increase in the number of passengers. [Dubai Airport Terminal]
Image Credit:
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Everybody may notice the difficulty of the situation in Britain, and the lack of government proficiency in controlling the spread of the virus, however, the British media surprises us by targeting Dubai, instead of focusing on the domestic situation that gets worse every day!

The British are not scared to get the virus from Dubai. The total number of infected cases in the UK exceeded 3.7 million cases, and the country are in a situation described by experts and specialists as "catastrophic". Though, what terrified the British, for years, is Dubai figures in many business and tourism activities, that had exceeded those of London, as Dubai International Airport surpassed the London Heathrow Airport, which is ranked second in the list of the largest airports in the world, in terms of numbers of international passengers, with more than 13.8 million passengers during the year before last.

Dubai topped the list of the largest airports in the number of international travelers, for the fifth year in a row, with the increase in the number of passengers.

Many specialized global companies expect that Dubai will surpass London within four years- by the year 2025, in numbers of international tourists, and these firms confirm that Dubai remains at the forefront, in the Middle East region, in the fields of culture, tourism and shopping, and attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world; and this beautiful city is one of the most important investment destinations in the world, in recent time, as the emirate is known for its unique commercial climate and strategic location.

This is what hurts them, and annoys them, and this is the reason behind the wild media campaigns against Dubai, as their minds can never realize that an Arab city has positioned itself on the global map of money, business, economy and tourism. And it succeeded.

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