History of Dubai

The Dubai way of life did not always center on oil and its profits. Dubai was originally a fishing settlement. Inhabitants lived by fishing, pearling, herding sheep and goats, and by the turn of the century was an important trading port. Trade expanded even as Dubai was under the British protectorate, and Dubai began to grow in merchant appeal. By the early 1900s, almost a quarter of the population was foreign. The population in the 1930s was 20,000, and of that, 2,000 were Persians, 1,000 Baluchis, many Indians and substantial communities from Bahrain, Kuwait and the Hasa province in eastern South Arabia. In 1954, the British established a political agency there as well.

In 1971, the British withdrew and Dubai joined with Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Aiman, Umm Al Quwain, Fajairah and later Ras Al Khaimah to create the federation of the United Arab Emirates. Oil was discovered in 1966 and by 1969 Dubai exported its first shipment of oil. The success of this venture fueled the rapid development of the area and through the insight of the late ruler provided for the general welfare of the inhabitants. Dubai worked to build up its infrastructure of transport facilities, schools, hospitals, tourism developments and other amenities of an advanced society. The journey continues today.

• Dubai Shopping Festival

Dubai is a real incident place. The colorful festivals and events in Dubai have always attracted the people from all over the world to come here and participate in the merrymaking. The festival in Dubai adds much more charm to the tours to Dubai.

Dubai offers an enviable picking of events and actions all around the year depiction flocks of tourists and populace from all over the world and the UAE. In Dubai you can enjoy spectacular traditional and major international sports events like camel racing and dhow regattas, World offshore powerboat championships or the world's richest horse-race - The Dubai World Cup This city is always buzzing with activities, events and festivals.

The Dubai Shopping Festival attracted more than 3.3 million people last year. It generated revenue in excess of 1.12 Billion USD.

So what are you coming up for, go ahead and get ready to visit the Dubai Shopping Festival this year?

• Dubai Film Festival

The correct name is 'Dubai International Film Festival', or DIFF, but it is repeatedly just called the 'Dubai Film Festival'. The DIFF is held yearly, under the backing of Dubai Media City, in early December. The first Dubai Film Festival in 2004 was regarded as very successful by the organizers and cinema-goers. In 2005, the DIFF saw the accepted films sold out well in advance and it was attended by a range of industry personnel and celebrities. The 2006 film festival was just as winning, with long queues of hopeful patrons waiting for spare tickets at major screenings (and usually missing out - book early for the good ones).

The film festival is one of those events that are really worth manufacture an effort to attend, with the opportunity to see films you're unlikely to see as a normal release, especially as there are almost no sovereign cinemas in Dubai. You also get to listen to some commentary from one or more of the directors, actors, actresses, producers as many of the films have them attending in the flesh and answering questions before and after a showing. An excellent, sober, cultural, memorable alternative to the usual booze-fuelled events like the Dubai Rugby 7s (also good fun, but for different reasons), which is on a week or two before the Dubai Film Festival.

The strict and highly respected journal of in progress affairs (ahem), The USA Today, included the DIFF in a July 2007 article called 'Where in the World are the Hottest Film Fests?'. Other events that made it into the list with DIFF included Cannes, the Locarno Festival, the London Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, and Sundance. We're at a loss to explain how such obscure events made it on to the same list as the DIFF.