AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO DUBAI
My first impression of Dubai was that it’s Vegas without the neon. But this, like most superficial assumptions one makes while travelling, was incorrect. After meeting with Kate Barry, a fashionable transplanted New Yorker, I sensed a genuine camaraderie that has its own charming allure. “Dubai is happy camp,” explained Barry, whose day gig is being the communications manager for Fendi, Middle East. “In major cities in the West, guests don’t just pop in for a coffee—it’s perceived as invasive or inconvenient. In Dubai, it’s normal. In New York, I felt like people thought being jaded or stressed was just what you had to do in order to ‘be a New Yorker.’ There’s a dynamic, positive energy here. It’s a city full of pioneers. I always speak of Dubai with a big smile on my face.”