If Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer had met at any other champagne brunch in any other luxury holiday destination, their canoodle on a beach would have struggled to raise an eyebrow.

But the two chose to stage their booze-fuelled brief encounter on Dubai’s Jumeirah beach, showing as much cultural awareness as a pork-scratchings salesman at a synagogue and breaking numerous Islamic laws. This Tuesday, the pair will be tried and, if found guilty, face up to six years in prison.

It is not just the hapless couple who are on trial. This week, Dubai itself will be in the dock, as the trifling matter of a drunken fumble on the beach brings into question the city’s claim to be the world’s new playground. Kissing in public is illegal. Homosexuality is forbidden.

The blood-alcohol limit for drink drivers is 0.00mg and drug policy is so strict that possession of Tixylix children’s cough medicine could put you behind bars. In hotels, nightclubs and on beaches, undercover officers of the city’s decency police keep watch for those having too much fun.

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Yet, with the aim of attracting 15m tourists a year by 2015 - making the city the world’s most popular destination after London - Dubai fancies itself as the world’s party capital. Nowhere epitomises this seemingly irreconcilable dichotomy better than the place where Acors and Palmer’s lives fell apart - Le Meridien hotel, on Jumeirah beach.

Every Friday, while Dubai’s Muslim faithful spend the afternoon in quiet reflection and prayer, the hotel entices expats and tourists to excess with a £60 all-you-can-drink champagne lunch.

“We want everyone to enjoy their time here,” says the Dubai department of tourism, “and, as such, people are expected to behave responsibly and respect the culture, traditions and local laws of the emirate.”

“Living here, you learn to play the game,” says expat Simon Miller. “You know how to party hard and not get caught, but for tourists it’s too easy to get overexcited by the glamour and fall foul of the law. Dubai looks like Vegas, but it’s not.”

A recent police crackdown resulted in the arrest of more than 100 tourists, for offences from cross-dressing to topless sunbathing. Last week, a lesbian couple caught kissing on the beach were sent down for a month.

In February, a British tourist, Keith Brown, was imprisoned for four years after a speck of cannabis was found stuck to the sole of his shoe; another was held for a month for possession of melatonin jet-lag tablets.

WHILE DUBAI has perhaps the strictest laws of any mainstream tourist destination, it is by no means the only place where tourists can unknowingly break local laws.

In Turkey, visitors face arrest if they are not in possession of photo ID when challenged. Acts of public affection constitute a public-order offence and the photographing of individuals without first seeking their permission can result in arrest.

In Morocco, persons accompanying an individual accused of possession of narcotics could face the same charges, and nonMuslims who enter a mosque uninvited face arrest and deportation.

Travellers arriving in China could be required to undergo blood tests for HIV before being granted entry; visitors to Malaysia face random urine tests for drug use; and if you forget to declare that jar of baby food when you enter Australia, you’ll be hit with a £100 fine.

Nearer home, Italy is fast becominga legal minefield. Building sandcastles is banned on Eraclea beach, near Venice, and if you take a nap in a Roman park, you could wake up in a Roman nick. More than two people on a bench in Novara can constitute a public-order offence, and woe betide the tourist who feeds the pigeons in Lucca.

From next month, motorists driving off the ferry at Calais face on-the-spot fines of up to £105 if they are not carrying a reflective triangle and at least one reflective jacket in their car. And male visitors to certain Swiss towns should remember that it is illegal to relieve yourself while standing up after 10pm.

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