Dubai is a cosmopolitan city that effortlessly offers all the elements for a memorable and magical lifestyle - sun, sand, surf, shopping and sightseeing, and then some more.
Dubai has a very eventful social calendar, with international sporting events, shopping and entertainment festivals, music and theatre events, and cultural programmes held at various indoor and outdoor venues all year around.
While Dubai is dynamic and truly modern, it has retained many of the cultural traditions established by its erstwhile nomads, fishermen, pearl divers, desert-dwellers and traders, which means that in a matter of hours, residents can take in the vast expanses of the Arabian desert or soaring steel towers; shop at age-old souks or at sophisticated shopping malls, participate in international water sports or enjoy a drive through rugged mountain villages.
For many centuries, Dubai has served as a warm and welcoming place for traders from the East and the West: Marco Polo described the city as a bustling commercial centre when he visited Dubai in the 13th century. The city is now the nerve centre of trade and commerce in the economically vibrant region, and serves as a strategic springboard to the Middle East consumer market. The UAE is the third largest economic power in the Arab world, where every one in 67 residents is a millionaire.
Today, Dubai lends full credence to its epithet of being the 'Best of East and West', with its strategic location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and serving as the gateway to the Gulf states, the Middle East, the CIS, East Africa and the Asian subcontinent.
