FACTORS CRITICAL TO DESTINATION
DEVELOPMENT
The statistics confirm Dubai’s pre-eminence as
a destination within the UAE, which attracted
5.8 million tourists in 2003 (WTO, 2005b), and
suggest a capacity to avoid or surmount the
inhibitors of tourism operating elsewhere in
the Middle East. The manner in which it has
done so is explained below in terms of the
factors identified earlier as facilitating destination
development if present or inhibiting it
when found wanting.