Is the Dubai dream over for Londoners?

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1:24Tom Place: Not even the hardest party-goers are immune to Middle Eastern tensions. Dubai, alongside its neighbours in the region, is also being targeted by Iranian strikes that have so far caused damage to airports, hotels and ports. So, are Brits falling out of love with Dubai? Hi, and welcome back to the Standard Podcast. I'm Tamara Kormornyk. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. Coming up, is the Dubai dream over for Londoners?

2:07Tom Place: Around 100 ,000 Brits have registered their location with the UK's foreign office, ready for evacuation. But as flights are slow to restart, many are stuck in airport hotels, desperately trying to get a seat on a flight home. But for expats who call Dubai home, Has this pulled off the desert rose-tinted glasses? In today's episode, I speak to standard freelance writer Tom Place, who has been reporting on the British repatriation process. I also chat to London expat Harley McGoheron, the CEO and founder of Trendsourcing, a luxury personal shopping service, who doesn't regret his decision to ditch London for Dubai.

2:50Tom Place: First up, here's my chat with Tom. so Tom for holiday makers in Dubai safe to say it's been quite the trip I can't say that anyone made a room request for a car park or a basement when they initially you know plan their trip

3:10Tamara Kormornick: absolutely not I mean I've spoken to quite a few people out there and most of the people I spoke to, especially the holidaymakers who were just out there for a short trip, they were aware of some unrest in the area, but they all said they hadn't really even considered that when they were making their trip. One woman I spoke to was already in the airport for her flight home when the attack started and the overriding impression she gave was a pure sense of havoc and panic and lots of people just reiterated really that no one knew what was happening or what was going on. there was also a real sense of sort of frustration from people with the airlines but I suppose really from you know it must be really incredibly hard for them as well to deal with the circumstances which I think were changing all the time over there.

3:59Tom Place: So Tom you've been speaking with stranded Brits as part of your writing for The Standard could you tell me about the experience of the evacuation process that you're hearing about?

4:14Tamara Kormornick: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it feels a little bit random. There's been some people who have just been stuck in hotels, frantically asking at the hotel or DMing or messaging with airlines to try to get an update. And apparently we're also getting reports this morning that notes are being slipped under doors at the hotel from Emirates, from the Emirates airline saying that they've got some flights to Manchester or London Heathrow or France and Germany and other areas as well. And people are being told that if your city isn't on this list, stay in your room. If you're not officially contacted by your airline, wait in the room.

4:48Tamara Kormornick: It seems like they are being slightly more efficient now. I think the hope is that that's going to increase in the next few days. We probably won't go back to the normal levels, but there'll be enough flights to get everyone out.

4:58Tom Place: Pretty anxious wait for those stuck in hotels.

5:09Tom Place: So let's talk a bit about this evacuation effort because Dubai International Airport has been damaged. Tom, how bad was the damage?

5:18Tamara Kormornick: Sure. I mean, from what we can understand at the moment, it's sort of a terminal area at the Dubai International Airport. It's had some minor damage from the strikes, or I think it's actually from falling debris, which is what most of the damage that's been done sort of both in the airport and in the city in general from the attacks. I think four airport staff were injured and treated, but no reports of any fatalities. Some people who were in hotels in the area, they've been moved to other hotels. And in terms of the evacuation, flights have begun again. There's a limited number of flights taking people out of the UAE.

5:52Tamara Kormornick: There's obviously still thousands of people stranded there and, you know, either trying to get to the airport or in hotels, sort of waiting for options, chasing airlines or the airport, you know, on social media, DMs and so on.

6:05Tom Place: And when you spoke to some of these holidaymakers, did you get the sense that it was the holiday from hell? Or do you not feel that it's really affected how they see Dubai and their love for the place?

6:20Tamara Kormornick: Yeah, I think weirdly actually it's sort of a bit of both because I think there were certainly aspects of it that were hellish to most people, especially for brief periods. but I did get an overriding sense of people saying they wouldn't hesitate to return to the region maybe not imminently but certainly it's not going to affect their long-term thoughts on the area when the very first sort of explosions were heard people thought it was fireworks that first evening though especially from the holiday because there was a real sense of pandemonium panic there was havoc at the airport people were in the airport when it happened trying to fly away and were quickly being evacuated away and it really was quite harrowing people saying they could see and even hear the missiles overhead there were lots of explosions and smoke and obviously that combined with the the lack of information on the ground was really frightening people telling me it was the most terrifying night of their lives I think it was around midnight on that first evening there were automated alerts that were being sent to people's phone telling them to get to shelter which obviously for the holiday makers especially who hadn't received those messages before caught a massive sense of panic and there were you know massive amounts of people gathering in hotel lobbies trying to get some information at that point but having said that after the initial that initial evening even with the lack of information everyone was really quite quick to tell me how well the authorities the people people on the ground the locals were so welcoming so kind and you know really praising that and the whole day from hell really turned into quite a bit of boredom um being told to stay in their hotels

7:53Tom Place: people were told to stay in their rooms god this sounds familiar yeah yeah exactly a bit of a

7:59Tamara Kormornick: throwback to sort of the uh the covid period but there was people with young children being told to you know coop in their rooms or certainly to stay at least in their hotel but yeah like i said i pretty much to a person from what i spoke to there was a real through line of the absolute love for the country the love for the area the trust in the in the local government there and reiterating that ultimately the uae in dubai is a really safe place in general and i i I certainly didn't get the feeling that it was a place people would not be returning to, especially the expats. But on the other hand, they also didn't tell me on more than a few occasions.

8:34Tamara Kormornick: They weren't able to share any footage or videos with me of the strikes or anything like that because apparently people on the ground have been told they could be arrested if they took or shared any footage of the debris that was going on. So, I mean, there is that side of it. But I mean, I didn't speak to a single person who would consider coming back.

8:53Tom Place: I would like to touch on that because I've heard rumblings that criticizing the UAE or the leadership could have some very serious consequences. Do you think we're getting a true picture?

9:10Tamara Kormornick: Possibly. You know, people who are already on the way back or who don't live there said that they're really keen to keep strong relationships with people who are there. and therefore they wouldn't criticise. But from speaking to them on the phone, I really did get the impression that, yes, that is an aspect to it, but also the people who they know, their experience is there and the general feeling they get when they are there is of safety. It was pretty clear as well, though, that the people who I spoke to who do live there, the last few days has been a very different experience than the holidaymakers because, obviously, they're not trying to get to airports, they're not trying desperately to get back to family.

9:46Tamara Kormornick: And also from a few of them who I spoke to said they were maybe living in areas that were less impacted by the falling debris, which might just be the coincidence. But also that they do occasionally just, it's not common, but in their day to day life over there, they do hear bangs. There are the occasional explosion and it's never really been anything they've had to worry about. And they do have a really strong level of trust in the sort of the regime over there. and a few of them were saying what's being reported in the UK media is very different to the domestic media and they don't trust the UK media and they really do trust everything that's been said over there.

10:21Tom Place: How interesting. Well, it sounds like it's business as usual. You know, pool parties and bottomless brunches are still all the rage.

10:31Tamara Kormornick: Well, maybe not the pool parties if they are having to stay at the hotel but yeah, certainly business as usual was a phrase said by multiple expats to me who live over there that exact phrase. So yeah, they're treating it as, you know, maybe a bit of a bleep and everything will be back to normal in a few days.

10:47Tom Place: Well, thanks so much, Tom, for sharing your thoughts on this.

10:50Tamara Kormornick: No problem at all. Thank you very much for having me.

11:00Tom Place: We'll take a quick break. Coming up, I speak to London expat Harley McCrochron, the CEO and founder of Trendsourcing, a luxury personal shopping service who is staying positive about the heightened tensions in the Middle East.

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12:18Tom Place: Welcome back. Here's my chat with Harley McGoheron.

12:25Tom Place: Harley, you're from London. You've moved out to Dubai. I'm guessing you know a lot of Londoners who have made the same move. What's the feeling on the ground in the expat community?

12:38Harley Mcgaughran: Do you know what? It's 50-50, if I'm being honest with you. Personally, I think people are more worried in the UK than we are here in Dubai, right? I don't have a family in Dubai, so maybe there's less of a worry. Honestly speaking, from somebody moving from the UK, I'm still young, 25, you know, it's just me and my missus out here. I don't see or feel any sign of danger we've seen things fly over we've heard big bangs and whatnot but honestly speaking I feel super safe you know I'm sat in a coffee shop there's people around this coffee shop's got a pool people are sunbathing I own a business that operates in the luxury sector we're still making sales people are still buying luxury goods so I haven't seen anything drastically change seen a lot on social media which I'm trying to stay away from um but look I think we're just

13:27Tom Place: staying positive at the minute everything seems fine and um are there safety protocols in place for example um well in the media that you know we're seeing in the west people in car parks and basements are most buildings kind of kitted out with these options you know what's giving people peace of mind that that things will be okay because they're you know there have been a few attacks in Dubai so far?

13:55Harley Mcgaughran: In regards to safety protocols, look, I experienced the floods here in Dubai, which is a lot different than missiles going over, right? But the protocols that were in place when Dubai was flooded was outstanding. You know, some of the busiest roads were closed, there was redirections, there was notification to people's phones. I was stuck in an airport for six hours and Dubai helped me get from the airport to home. So I don't have any doubt in Dubai keeping us safe if things were to go for the worst. Again, I say go for the worst. we're seeing the propaganda on social media about x amount of missiles have been intercepted is it scary yeah of course most definitely but i just feel the buyer so advanced and are so ahead of the game from all angles that if they did honestly feel that we was under extreme danger there's measures in place and protocols that we haven't seen yet that would be put in place should they

14:44Tom Place: feel that any of us are unsafe and harley can you tell me a bit about the night of the uh the strikes.

14:51Harley Mcgaughran: Do you know what the funny thing actually I heard it from the UK before I heard it here and it was mad it was my mum that actually called me she's like oh my god have you seen the news Dubai's getting targeted, Kuwait's getting targeted, Bahrain I'm like what I said I haven't even heard anything and I sort of just brushed it off and laughed you know I'm very much to tell my mum to not watch the news or look at social media then there obviously was a few loud bangs we started to see interceptions in the air I wasn't worried and I'm still not worried now if I'm brutally honest with you, I don't think I will be worried unless there is a real physical sign of danger.

15:20Harley Mcgaughran: I don't know if you see yesterday across social media, the rulers of Dubai were just out freely in the mall. That has obviously put a lot of us at ease. They're out and about. There's no big news headlines from the UAE. There is a slight part of worry, don't get me wrong. Like when you're seeing the numbers on again, I'm saying social media, you know, I've not seen 500 missiles. So it's a little bit different. But if I'm reading social media, 500 missiles intercepted look of course it's scary and I am a little bit worried but it's just about staying positive and I feel like we're in safe hands here in Dubai

15:54Tom Place: Well thank you so much for chatting to me Harley and stay safe

15:57Harley Mcgaughran: Yeah no worries thank you very much

16:04Tom Place: And that's The Standard For all the latest news head to standard.co.uk If you're new here hit follow and give us a rating If you'd like to get in touch, email us at podcasts at standard.co.uk. We'll be back here tomorrow morning. See you then.

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