Ten years ago, Dubai was an obscure stop-over place with a handful of beach hotels and a duty-free airport. Today, almost unbelievably, it’s the world’s fastest-growing tourist destination, pulling in 5m visitors a year. It has achieved this feat by building relentlessly and extravagantly: spectacular hotels, vast shopping malls and an archipelago of artificial islands, shaped like a palm tree, which is said to be visible from space.

Dubai continues to invent itself at a breathless pace. Work has begun on the world’s tallest building, the world’s first underwater hotel, a revolving ski slope, a second collection of offshore islands (250 of them, this time arranged to resemble a map of the world), and a £3 billion theme park — Dubailand — that will be almost as big as the city itself. The annual visitor count is expected to treble by 2010.

While the landscaping may be artificial, however, the atmosphere is not. Dubai is a true 21st-century city, positively fizzing with energy and excitement. Sceptics may dub it Vegas-on-Sea, but there is no denying that British tourists, who make up the largest chunk of foreign visitors, adore it. For confirmed fans, even the round-the-clock building work seems to be more a source of fascination than annoyance.

It’s hardly surprising that neighbouring Gulf states now crave a slice of the action. Qatar, which has the world’s highest per capita income, is throwing billions at manufacturing its own tourist industry. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has for years looked down its nose at boom-town Dubai; now, after an apparent change of heart, it has a new airline and wants to attract planeloads of upmarket tourists. But why should we holiday in the Gulf rather than, say, Florida, the Caribbean or the Far East? What’s all the fuss about?

Dubai

Arriving at Dubai’s dazzling, newly refurbished airport, you feel as if you’ve stepped into the future. There’s barely time to get your bearings before you’re whisked into an air- conditioned car for the short drive along a 10-lane highway to your hotel.

You’ll almost certainly be bound for Jumeirah Beach, a long strip of coarse white sand that runs alongside the clear waters of the Gulf. Beside it is an extraordinary collection of hotels, from the wavy modernism of the 600-room Jumeirah Beach, to the new Al Qasr, modelled on a traditional Arabian palace.

Most hotels offer watersports, live music and — with guests arriving daily from around the globe — unlimited people-watching opportunities. There is plenty to keep children amused, too, including a world-class water park.

The city’s beating heart can still be found in the old quarter, Bastakia, where hulking wooden dhows line up alongside the waters of the Creek. They are loaded with refrigerators, sugar, even cars, all bound for ports as distant as Nairobi and Karachi. Here, far from the modern-day attractions of Jumeirah, you can pay 8p to cross the water in a real abra — a motorised water taxi — and head to the souks.

:MPU::WHERE TO STAY

The hottest new hotel, Al Qasr (00 971-4 366 8888, www.madinatjumeirah.com), is part of the Madinat Jumeirah complex, made up of two huge “boutique” hotels (the other is Mina A’ Salam, which opened last year), a Six Senses spa, a lively “souk” with 75 shops and a couple of miles of man-made waterways. It’s a big, bustling, baffling place, richly themed, with the faintest whiff of Disney about it. The breakfast buffet was among the finest I’ve ever seen (everything from sushi to camel’s milk), and the swimming pool so big that without my glasses I got lost in it. Of the two hotels — both too big to get away with the term boutique — Al Qasr is the more impressive. But a more appealing option is the collection of courtyard houses — known as Dar Al Masyaf — which are dotted about the grounds.

Madinat Jumeirah is owned by Jumeirah International, the company behind the Jumeirah Beach and the Burj Al Arab (4 301 7777, www.burj-al-arab.com). The former now looks rather ordinary in comparison, but it’s still a big favourite with families — packed with facilities and bang on the beach.

The Burj Al Arab is a different matter. Wherever you are in Jumeirah, you can see it, towering skyward from its own artificial island. After a few days in Dubai, you will be aching to take a peep inside.

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