Dubai - Many of Dubai's large expatriate population are anxious about their future after the shock news of the emirate's financial difficulties, revealed just before the long weekend of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday.
"My opinion is that things are going to be worse in terms of stock market, real estate, business," said Rami Nasser, a 45 year-old sales manager.
"Dubai worked very hard for so many years on its image and to establish itself as a finance hub. I am not sure they will be able to regain the reputation of stability," he said, adding: "Maybe big companies will start leaving now."
The Dubai government chose the eve of the four-day break on Wednesday to announce that flagship state-controlled conglomerate Dubai World is seeking to suspend payments on its debt for the next six months.
But people maintained a holiday mood in Dubai on Friday, thronging shopping malls for the seasonal special attractions and clogging up the roads with their cars.
As in previous holiday periods, tourists flocked to Dubai from the Gulf region and further away, filling luxury hotels that include the world's only declared seven-star establishment, the Burj Al-Arab.
But many of the expatriates who form the majority of the city state's population feel that the buzz had already gone from once-booming Dubai before the shock announcement from the owners of the Nakheel construction company, whose Palm Jumeirah artificial island symbolised the emirate's ambitions.
In Dubai's boom years from the start of the decade, property prices quadrupled and the population swelled as people flocked to work in the glitzy city.
At the end of 2007, the UAE was estimated to have a total population of 6.4 million people of whom 5.5 million were foreigners. More than three million were registered with the ministry of labour as workers.
Now the picture is very different. Property prices have slumped by 50 percent from their peak in mid-2008 and many foreign workers have left in the wake of mass redundancies as hundreds of projects in Dubai and other cities in the United Arab Emirates were put on hold.
"The situation was already bad and I was sacked this year because of the crisis. Now I think I will pack my things and leave to find another job elsewhere," Abdel Halim Ahmad, a commercial manager in the construction sector, said on Friday.
He believes the emirate of Dubai will survive but "I think mega projects will not be financed anymore. It is very worrying, and jobs will go down," the 50 year-old Syrian said.
Briton Dawn Evans feels Dubai's downfall was its over-reliance on the property sector, although she worked in the industry herself.
Evans was made redundant eight months ago and is sueing for damages. "A country cannot rely on real estate," she said. "The boom was too quick; there was no proper planning."
Julien Daim, a businessman aged 46, regards Dubai's financial difficulties as "very serious even though newspapers try to be reassuring."
"I think the months to come are going to be very difficult," he said.
However, Daim is pleased about one aspect of the crisis. "I think real estate prices will go further more down," making homes more affordable for ordinary people.
- Sapa-AFP