Dubai’s booming restaurant scene is feeling the heat of high costs and high failure rates
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – From the vine tables to the underwater halls, approximately 13,000 food and beverage organizations in Dubai produce all the stops to attract customers in one of the most saturated dining markets in the world.
They appeal to every taste and budget. Some points go out cheap Others offer dusty dishes with edible gold.
These are some of the ways of the emirate to compete with their neighbors Saudi Arabia And Train For tourist dollars and so far Beat them. Dubai has more restaurants than any big city per person. Paris.
However, the City-State’s exploding restaurant scene testing the limits of the entire cost of growth model and raises questions about how long Dubai can continue to feed his own ambitions.
Competition is fierce, so the presentation key.
Kym Barter, General Manager of Atlantis The Palm, a holiday village that has a human -made team with a more Michelin star than other places in the Middle East, said, “Only days of good tastes are behind,” he said.
However, the food bloggers of Dubai, the dazzling of millions of most popular social media followers, are not enough. Standing means fighting high rents And to win a various and challenging group of consumers.
Dubai has about nine expatriate residents for every Emirati citizen. Most of the private sector employees are immigrants in temporary contracts, and only the Vatican city has a higher share of foreign -born inhabitants.
Tourists, respectively, spend more than five of the natives and generously, according to some estimates. Visitors to Dubai fall on average five times more than traveling to relatives. Saudi Arabia even USAAccording to Global Restaurant Advisor Aaron Allen.
Björn Fondzén said that Dubai was on the right path to be the world’s food capital. The restaurant, which works more than $ 540, was one of the two of the three Michelin stars from Dubai in May.
“We see the end of the iceberg what will happen here in terms of gastronomy, Vild said Vildgaard added.
With each newly illuminated high -rise and hotel set, another restaurant crop for the bosses emerges. The legions of construction workers, who strengthen Dubai’s progress, also need affordable prices.
This growth, which is partly supported by the pressure of the investor on the world’s largest chains in Dubai, warned that some analysts are a bubble.
“If you are a public company like American, what do you have to do – just stop opening a restaurant?” Restaurant Advisor Allen referred to the Gulf -based operator of KFC, Pizza Hut and other major franchises.
The crazy expansion of Dubai’s restaurant industry is part of a regional change that sees the Gulf Arab states. Pour hundreds of billion dollars To build tourist places when they move away from hydrocarbons to diversify their economies. Saudi Arabia has a high -risk project of $ 500 billion: The flat line named Neom Futuristic City.
However, in a Muslim majority region, the United Arab Emirates went to the lengths where some of them were considering too much compromise, Relaxing restrictions on alcohol This fueled its bars and nightlife and other social reforms.
Fast development comes with a price. Local officials say that Dubai’s restaurants have a high failure rate, even if they say what the closing rate is. In the Downtown region and in other main areas, annual rents for restaurants can be at the highest level of $ 100 per square meter. This is equal to the most expensive cities in the world.
According to the Dubai Economy and Tourism Department, Emirate has issued approximately 1,200 new restaurants licenses last year. The department refused to answer questions.
Empty tables at busy hours are common even in the upper places. Part of the problem, managers say traffic jam It is so violent that it may be a long task to convince the audience to go out.
“Sometimes I go, ‘I’m going to the restaurant right now, because I’m going to traffic?’ ” Said Waseem Abdul Hameed, Operation Manager Waseem Abdul Hameed RaviIt is an Eatery of a Pakistani family famous for its official Adidas shoe line and 2010 TV feature from Anthony Bourdain.
Hameed knows others who are bored with shops and thin margins and rely on more and more delivery applications.
The demand sends the fleets of immigrant workers by motorcycles and fleets competing through grill. Several protection And tight delivery windows. Emirati newspaper Khaleej Times reported the accidental deaths of 17 Dubai food couriers last year.
Restaurant Advisor Allen said that the mathematics of Dubai’s restaurant scene was not collected and that it does not contain delivery applications and wealthy tourists. The emirate of a financial crisis has been hobe, which has been hobe, since 2009, he said the business costs, which have been more than twice as much as sales.
Very many Dubai entrepreneurs, simply have a lot of money and don’t know what to do as well as open restaurants ”.
