Bustling bars, surging business: Dubai sees a post-vax boom
CTV
Nations around the world are lurching into lockdown, steeling themselves for a brutal surge as the Omicron variant spreads like wildfire. But not in Dubai, where high vaccination rates have seen business surge
But in Dubai, Donna Sese is bracing for a very different surge: countless restaurant bookings and metre-long drink bills.
"We're back and busy like the way things used to be," said Sese, manager of the Yalumba restaurant at the five-star Le Meridien hotel, where devotees of Dubai's Friday brunch pay US$250 for lavish spreads with free-flowing Clicquot Champagne.
The globalized city-state appears to be in the midst of a boom season, spurred on by one of the world's highest vaccination rates and government steps to lure businesses and de-escalate tensions with regional rivals.
Maskless debauchery has returned to dance floors. Brunch-goers are drinking with abandon. Home-buyers are flooding the market. Tourists are snapping up hotel suites.
