Beyond Oil

"Recent development in the Persian Gulf countries indicates a shift from a heavy reliance on oil to more economic diversity, reflecting the region’s ambition to become a major tourist and financial center. The past four years in particular have seen strong income from high oil prices, which has given the private and public sectors more funds to invest in real estate. Also, the Iraq war has led Arabs to spend more of their leisure time within the region. While Iraq’s future remains uncertain, a number of the country’s neighbors—Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E), Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Lebanon—are moving ahead with a number of large-scale tourism, commercial, and residential projects."