Dubai is making genuine efforts to get western tourists on their doorstep, and their efforts haven’t gone wasted. Even with travel restrictions in 2020, more than 5.5 million tourists headed to Dubai in 2020 alone.
Their latest move has been to introduce “gamer caves” in their hotel rooms. It’s certainly an intriguing concept, and will it take off? Read all the details here.
Dubai and tourism
Dubai has gone through quite a transformation in the last couple of decades. People who would never consider going to the Middle East are now thinking about it in the West. Dubai has done a lot to try and appeal to western tourists. The glamour of the hotels and resorts akin to hotels in Vegas are showcased in movies like Furious 7, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and any other movie looking to put their female lead in a ball gown with a martini while beating up bad guys. It seems like Dubai is using its low filming costs to convince western audiences that it isn’t just desert in their city.
The comparison to Las Vegas is apt for other reasons. After all, it’s a city in the middle of the desert, with not much else around it. Its tourist boards fill with mentions of “The World’s Biggest [insert attraction here],” evoking the Vegas spirit of giving tourists a visit they won’t ever forget, and its penchant for the gluttonous feeling of “more” city has to offer. The Dubai Mall is the biggest in the world, sitting a short drive away from the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
There are waterparks and indoor ski resorts (in the desert!), aquariums and various other tourist traps that appeal to western tourists.
But what Dubai has that Vegas lacks is its natural beauty and some culture. Sun worshippers can lounge on the beach; tourists can ride camels or quad bikes through the dunes, or you can visit Dubai temples or the Dubai Miracle Garden. And it seems Dubai’s efforts are extending to gamers?
Gamers in Dubai
Yes, much like gamblers in Vegas, sometimes visitors to Dubai need to get out of the heat or come here to play games.
Well, they’re in luck because Dubai’s Rove Hotel is now offering rooms dedicated to online gaming. Gamers can enter a “gamer cave” and be awed by a themed hotel room designed for gamers and spend the night playing one of the most popular casino games as roulette online on some impressive tech. More and more online casino players are looking for comfort. There are many online poker players who spend hours in front of the screen and appreciate this type of furniture and gadgets.
Sit down in your gamer chair, in front of your double-monitor Intel Core i7-powered gaming PC. It comes complete with an Nvidia RTX graphics card and Asus Z590 Prime motherboard, all the trimmings, including mouse, headset, mic and camera supplied by Razer and play one of your favorite games.
Games on offer include DOTA, Valorant, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA 5, Overwatch and more. Plus, there is the option available to connect your own Steam or Epic Games account to the computer and download any existing game you feel like playing.
Is this the way forward?
Dubai is sure to attract buyers with a kit like that. Even if you are an avid gamer, all that kit is a lot of money. To be able to use it all while you’re on holiday is an experience few could pass by. To try out a hotel room dedicated to gaming is a chance most wouldn’t get, and the novelty alone would have you booking a room.
And then there are those for whom gaming is a career. Tournament players like Team Liquid and Gambit would appreciate the hotel room for their next championship, often held in venues worldwide. This year Berlin and Stockholm are each seeing tournaments in Valorant and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with thousands of players, stadiums sold out, and millions of eyes watching the streams at home.
So, it’s no surprise that Dubai is getting into the eSports industry this year, with the announcement in August that Dubai intends to host the world’s biggest eSports, comics, and YouTubers pop culture festival over five days in March 2022.
The festival, hosted by Waverider and Galaxy Racer, is tapping into the pop culture zeitgeist by hosting POPC Live! On top of nerd-culture revelers and industry giants, it’s sure to attract a lot of eSport gamers to Dubai. Many of these rooms will be taken up by competitors in the tournaments, and sports enthusiasts excited to get into the game themselves.
Maybe that is the way forward. No one can argue that it’s innovative. It takes the concept of appealing to the young ones to a new level, avoiding the cliches of water parks and karaoke that most European resorts consider offering. It caters to a new audience often dismissed amongst the culture vultures, sun worshippers and landmark addicts that travel brochures appeal to pop culture nerds.
