Bustling bars, surging business: Dubai sees a post-vax boom

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Nations around the world are lurching into lockdown, steeling themselves for a brutal surge as the omicron variant spreads like wildfire.

But in Dubai, Donna Sese is bracing for a very different surge: countless restaurant bookings and meter-long drink bills.

“We’re back and busy like the way things used to be,” said Sese, manager of the Yalumba restaurant at the five-star Le Meridien hotel, where devotees of Dubai’s Friday brunch pay $250 for lavish spreads with free-flowing Clicquot Champagne.

The globalized city-state appears to be in the midst of a boom season, spurred on by one of the world’s highest vaccination rates and government steps to lure businesses and de-escalate tensions with regional rivals.

Maskless debauchery has returned to dance floors. Brunch-goers are drinking with abandon. Home-buyers are flooding the market. Tourists are snapping up hotel suites. Expat millionaires are moving to the emirate. Coronavirus infections, although now making a comeback, remain below past peaks.

The Dubai government did not respond to request for comment.

It's déjà vu for those recalling the rush of December last year in Dubai, when the city courted tourists and influencers fleeing virus lockdowns and wintry weather. The open-door policy let revelers sate their pent-up desire to go out on New Year's Eve but infections soon rocketed to unseen heights, and hospitals filled up.

A year later, mass vaccination has left Dubai feeling like it’s off the hook. There have been vanishingly few virus hospitalizations and deaths — even as the threat of omicron looms and daily infections surged over 660 on Wednesday after lows of under 100 for weeks.

While many Western countries have seen inoculation rates plateau, the UAE reports 99% of all of...