A desert and hostile territory, an unattractive sea, an infernal climate 9 months a year and traffic jammed 24 hours a day: it seems the portrait of a place where no tourist would ever want to go, instead these are some of the characteristics of Dubai, super popular and very glamorous for travelers from all over the world, a true miracle in the desert waiting to shine even more for Expo 24.
The Burj al Arab, a super luxury hotel in the shape of a sail, is one of the most famous buildings in the world. Perhaps not as famous as the Eiffel Tower, but probably better known than many jewels of a thousand Italian towns. And tourists run to see it, while the wealthier ones choose to sleep or eat inside, taking into account dizzying figures. Dubai is a mystery that only studies of economics, sociology and politics can explain. However, the layman can see that the emirs, in terms of territorial marketing and communication, know their stuff.
Everything they do is always the biggest or the most special: the tallest skyscraper (the Burj Khalifa), which reaches 828 meters, carrying its thin tip in the clouds; the shopping mall with the ski slope and the hut, where you can warm up; artificial peninsulas and so on. Pharaonic works, decided in twos and twos, a prerogative of absolute monarchies (unenviable regime), built in record time, with significant oil revenues, given that the United Arab Emirates (especially Abu Dhabi) are the fifth largest producers in the world. Obviously the labor does not have our costs (the salaries of a worker range from 300 to one thousand euros per month) and taxes are practically non-existent. There is no shortage of work in these territories, which have the highest immigration rate in the world. Today, about 7,5 million people live in the Emirates, of which only 20% are natives of the place. The premises are certainly not politically correct, but the results remain impressive. Dubai, the best known though not the richest emirate, has always been a very important commercial port (third in the world), but today it is also a unique tourist destination, thanks to the visionary ability of those who govern. And thousands of tourists wander around these imaginative skyscrapers, real contemporary masterpieces, designed by the best architects in the world, being dazzled by a skyline that no longer has anything to envy of New York City. The sensation is similar to that experienced at certain contemporary art exhibitions: difficult to explain, difficult to understand, suspended between beauty and deceit, yet alive and in dialogue. All the big names, of any product category, compete to occupy a place in one of the huge warehouses that are the square of Dubai, shelters from the unbearable heat, a place for leisure and entertainment. And it's quite curious to see these staid Arabs, in their marvelous white kaftans, sitting in front of a nice plate of macaroni from Eataly, after having gone shopping between an Armani and a Prada store.
The miracle in the desert is possible because there is a magic potion called fresh water, a very precious commodity that the sheikhs steal from the sea in huge desalination plants, the largest of which, in the port of Jebel Ali, cost 13 billion dollars and can produce up to 600.000 cubic meters of water per day. Blue gold that irrigates a thousand flowerbeds, glittering flowers, luxuriant gardens and magnificent golf courses that proliferate in this artificial paradise, also thanks to the best players in the world. Running and even drinkable water (although everyone uses bottled water) which serves to survive even when, in July and August, the air reaches 50 degrees and the sea turns into a 35-degree slop, more suitable for minestrone and fish. Water which, in an oil country, naturally costs more than petrol, which modestly costs around 30 cents per litre. Black gold is the UAE's boon (although today, thanks to forward-looking diversification, it represents only 26% of GDP), but it could also become their doom. There are more cars than people in Dubai, and that means 10-lane roads crisscrossing the city, jammed day and night. In fact, the development has been such that, despite the 2009 crisis and the huge investments in the road network, the brand new roads were born old. The problem will have to be solved, also to bear the mass of people that will pour into Dubai in the coming years with the new "Al Maktoum international" airport, the final cost of which, between construction and development, should be around 32 billion dollars. It will have five runways and four terminals, with the aim of carrying 160 million passengers a year, more than any other hub. A few steps from the airport, Expo 2020 will find its home in a new 400-hectare exhibition center (called Exhibition City). Connecting Minds, Creating the Future is the theme chosen for the event, where an estimated 25 million visitors will arrive for an appointment that also falls on the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Emirates.