After three years of restrictions due to Covid-19, this is going to be the first New Year’s Eve bash without one, and Dubai is determined to throw a party to remember. With hundreds of thousands of people approaching from all around the world, Dubai has become the world centre for new year celebrations. Visitors from around the globe converge in Dubai to be amazed by the fireworks at Burj Khalifa.
This year, the show will be using 22,000 gallons of water for water show with 344 underwater robots. There are expected to be 828 meters of fireworks with 2,500 firing directions and 287 firing positions. A total of 145,000 watts of light power and 4,000 watts of lasers with lighten up new year’s night, as shared by the Organisers of the show, Emaar, on Friday.
Authorities in Dubai are also buckled up for the massive number of visitors expected. Major-General Saif Mohair Al Mazrouei, Acting Chairman of the Executive Committee for Securing International and Local Events in Dubai, mentioned the arrangement of 10,597 personnel consisting of 1,420 volunteers, 45 marine boats, 5,800 security guards and 3,651 patrols and vehicles have been deployed across 30 locations, where the fireworks will take place.
With visitors from around the world to witness these record-breaking world fireworks, Dubai roads are expected to be overwhelmed. Careem on Friday reported their operational limitations that will be placed on New Year’s Eve. They mentioned their on-demand bookings to be only available between 2 pm on December 31 and 5 am on January. At the same time, App users will not be able to schedule trips during this period. Only Dubai Taxi and Economy are mentioned to be available from 4 pm on December 31 until 4 am the other day.
Careem advised their customers to “coordinate with your Captains on pick-up locations by calling them directly through the app to ensure a smooth experience.” At the same time, mention all promo codes are to be deactivated tomorrow but can be used from January 2. While it is logical to assume that the platform won’t be able to take orders in event areas, including Downtown, DIFC, Business Bay, City walk, JBR, Palm Jumeirah and Bluewaters in given times, food deliveries will likely be delayed or unavailable also at those times. As Careem stated to their customers, “plan your night ahead and order early”.
The biggest state of the Emirates has been focusing on its tourist sector for quite some time now. With stunning weather at the time of the new year and the tourism sector peaking in Dubai, all the major attractions have been reported to be sold out as it is becoming the world centre for tourism. With the massive influx of visitors, the airport issued a peak travel advisory for the next eight days; on December 27, nearly 2 million visitors passed through Dubai International airport, with average daily traffic reaching over a whopping 240,000 passengers.
Whereas January 2 is expected to be the busiest of all days, with traffic exceeding 257,000 passengers. From Shopping malls to the Museum of the Future, including restaurants are witnessing high footfall. As reported by Avinash Adnani, managing director of Pluto Travels, “Dubai is quite busy with a lot of tourists currently visiting the emirate to enjoy the beautiful weather. Shopping malls are enjoying a very high footfall. Tourist attractions such as the Museum of the Future and the Burj Khalifa are enjoying full very heavy bookings. Bookings to popular tourist attractions are full for the next five-six days.”
Tourism has been growing fastest among sectors in the emirates this year. Dubai Economy and Tourism have reported 12.82 million tourists reaching Dubai in the first 11 months, crowing it to the top 5 in the tourist market for the emirates with India, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UK and Russia.
