Known as the party capital of the Gulf, Dubai’s bottomless booze-fuelled Friday brunches have become a national institution, its beach clubs more reminiscent of Ibiza than anything familiar to its Muslim neighbours.
Its famous liberalism, relative to “dry” Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, comes at a cost, however. A pint of beer can set you back £15, and a bottle of wine £70.
Now, though, as Qatar and even Saudi Arabia bid for tourism by easing restrictions, Dubai wants to reduce the financial burden on revellers by cutting its tax on alcohol.
News that the tax, set at 30 per cent, is to disappear will be welcome to the 1.5 million Britons who visit every year, as well as to more than 100,000 expatriate residents who flock to the city state’s specialist alcohol shops, bars and restaurants.
Licences for residents, which cost about £60 are needed to buy alcohol for home consumption, will also be free in Dubai, cutting another layer of red tape designed in part to stop Muslims buying alcohol.
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The changes, which are to be made for a trial period of one year, follow a wealth of secularising reforms in the past two years. These include liberalising laws governing alcohol consumption, changing the working week to align with the West and decriminalising eating and drinking in public during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.
It is also no longer illegal for unmarried couples to live together, or for women to give birth outside wedlock.
Qatar, partly inspired by the World Cup, is determined to use its new facilities to boost its tourism revenue. Like Dubai, it allows the sale of alcohol in upmarket hotel bars and restaurants. Even Saudi Arabia has started developing tourist resorts as it continues to promote social reforms.
The big cities, Riyadh and Jeddah, host regular mixed-sex dance parties where, until five years ago, concerts in all forms were banned and segregation was the legal and cultural norm. Saudi Arabia has also opened up its ancient al-Ula region to tourism, where guests can now attend desert music festivals headlined by the likes of Bruno Mars.
Once more famed for pilgrims than parties, Saudi Arabia is expected by many insiders to allow alcohol to be served at least in its new mega project, Neom, a futuristic development on the Red Sea.
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Dubai’s off-licences could not wait to share the news this week, announcing immediate discounts across stores, hoping to win back many of the residents who drive to nearby emirates where they do not need alcohol licences and prices are far lower. The seven emirates which make up the UAE set many of their own social policies.
Hesham al-Refai, a legal expert, said the new laws reflected the UAE’s secular policies and “laissez faire laissez passer attitude”. With 90 per cent of the country’s population hailing from almost 200 nations, including around 120,000 Britons, he said it was a “pragmatic and realistic” way to remain the go-to destination in the region. “The country knows that prohibition never works anywhere,” he said. “The UAE model is to regulate and supervise rather than prohibit.”
It has not been met with a welcome response by all. The influential Emirati commentator Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said: “There should be more tax not less.” However, residents have been carrying increased costs of living such as rising rents and food prices, and now face the introduction of a 9 per cent corporation tax in June.
Lindsay Trivers, who runs the Tasting Class, a wine experience and sommelier school, said: “Some places have slashed prices while others will use the discount to earn a little extra margin. What I’m hoping to see now though is better correlation between the prices and the quality of the product.”
