The gravy train is over: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Bahrain will never be the same again, even though hoteliers and tour operators will do everything they can to make up for lost ground, offering vacation packages for well under EUR2,500 a week to crowds of tourists looking to enjoy a sunny getaway out of season.
Staff at major hotels and resorts have been asked to take paid leave due to the drastic reduction in guests, which has significantly reduced their daily workload. The ongoing Iranian bombings have meant that what until a few days ago was considered a prime destination for entrepreneurs and investors, influencers, and oligarchs from around the world, fleeing after plundering their companies, and models and actresses in search of easy careers, a territory that was once a safe haven for more or less clean capital, thanks in part to an extremely favorable tax regime, has now become an unsafe place from which to flee. Those feeling the pinch are not only the ruling classes, composed of unlikely monarchs who relied on US protection to prosper and enrich themselves, and who ensured support for the dollar and investments in the United States. They are also the populations, largely composed of slaves from all the poorest countries in Asia who replaced a virtually nonexistent native population. In exchange, they obtained guarantees of difficult but impossible earnings in their countries of origin, guaranteed by the fact that they operated in a speculative bubble in which they could benefit from an apparent welfare system that, with the tourism crisis, is disappearing. Oil and gas resources alone are not enough to guarantee economic well-being and mass employment, and this Persian Gulf bubble of prosperity is preparing for a structural crisis that will be difficult to overcome. No more crowded shopping malls, the streets are deserted, and fear reigns: the Iranians have cleverly targeted the financial district near Burj Khalifa with the aim of undermining the UAE's economy. Meanwhile, one of the towers of the Dubai International Financial Centre is burning due to the impact of an Iranian drone, and the district, home to more than 1,500 businesses and over 50,000 workers, is deserted, and the world's largest gas field is burning. Many are fleeing as soon as they can, businesses of all kinds are reducing staff or requiring people to work remotely, while airline flights depart full and return empty, picking up those who remain, closing accounts, and hastily relocating businesses.Ecological disaster and logistics crisis
The war is not only deteriorating economic relations, development prospects, and social life, but also, and above all, the environment. Particularly affected are the 33 islands in the Persian Gulf, located off the northern coast of the Arabian Peninsula and comprising the Kingdom of Bahrain. Once-crowded beaches are now deserted, while the once-crystalline sea, the rich and beautiful marine fauna and flora, are now at risk of severe pollution, even jeopardized by oil spills pouring into the sea from stricken tankers and the destroyed coastal facilities from which the oil was loaded onto ships. Burning oil and gas wells pollute the air.
The paradise advertised in elegant tourist brochures is increasingly turning into a living hell, while the warring parties have no qualms about sparing the desalination plants that, by providing water, make life possible, ultimately driving locals and tourists away. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, affecting not only oil tanker traffic but also merchant shipping, drastically reduces food availability. This area does not produce even the bare essentials for survival, and everything must be imported, in a situation where maritime traffic is virtually nonexistent.
It is currently estimated that more than 3,200 ships are stranded in the Gulf, unable to dock and lacking sufficient supplies of food and water.
But even more serious consequences, if possible, concern logistics, given that the airports of Abu Dhabi and Dubai are essential hubs for air traffic on routes between Europe, Australia, and the Far East. The conflict developing in the air, the constant arrival of drones, the destruction of airport facilities, or at least parts of them, and the reduction of radar services that monitor and ensure air traffic, make the use of these airports impractical and extremely risky.
It's no coincidence that the Formula One races scheduled for April in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, as well as the MotoGP races scheduled for Qatar, have been canceled. It may not be the end of the world, but it's certainly starting to look like one. What is certain is that it is the end of a world, that of the oil-tourism bubble on which the countries in the area thrived.
It's certainly true that what is happening is damaging not only the Persian Gulf countries, but also Europe as a whole, which, after severing ties with Russia for oil and gas supplies, sourced energy resources from this region. It is even more damaging to China, Japan, and the countries of the Far East, which relied on Iranian and Gulf oil fields to fuel their economies. What happened has caused the United States to lose its aura as the great protector of these countries' stability, to the point that it is more than likely that, once the war is over, the capital these countries hold will refrain from making the investments promised to Trump to the United States, especially since they will have to be used to finance reconstruction.
Undoubtedly, Russia and China will take advantage of this, giving them the opportunity to re-enter the Middle East in a major way, determining its new balance of power.
Whatever the outcome of the war on the battlefield, from a strategic standpoint, Iran has already won the war.
G. L.
https://www.ucadi.org/2026/03/28/la-festa-e-finita/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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