Editor’s Note: Longtime charter broker DJ Parker, president of Neptune Group Yachting, attended the March 2008 Dubai Boat Show in the United Arab Emirates with fellow NGYI broker Julie Haiko and assistant Clancy Weller. Parker (seated at bottom left in the photo below) shared her thoughts about the show and Dubai’s future as a charter destination with CharterWave editor Kim Kavin. Excerpts from that exclusive interview appear below, alongside photos reprinted with Parker’s permission.

Date posted: April 2008

How did a charter company from Florida end up at the Dubai Boat Show in the Middle East?
There was a lot of hype about it, and we plunged in and thought we’d be blazing some new charter trails. We had a booth there. We were part of Enterprise Florida, a government-sponsored group that helps small companies. They helped us get the booth with other yacht-related people from Florida, though we were the only charter service company there.

What was it like staying in Dubai?
Going there was terrific. We flew from Florida to New York City, then New York City to Dubai on Emirates airline. It was excellent service.
     While in Dubai, we stayed at two Hiltons. One was on The Creek—that’s what they call it—that runs right through Dubai. It’s the Hilton Dubai Creek. We stayed there first night, and then moved to the Jumeirah Beach Hilton, which is on one of the most fabulous beaches I’ve ever seen.
     After putting it all in perspective, I realized Dubai is just one giant beach and they built a city on it. It’s all sand. It’s beautifully landscaped around the Jumeirah hotel, with pools and gardens, just a first-class beach with good shelling, warm clear water—a lot of tourists. The hotels, it looks like something out of Architectural Digest. I saw one phrase that I thought summed it all up: “We think outside the box so that you don’t have to live in one.”

As three white, American women traveling together, did you feel safe?
Completely. In my opinion, there is no way anything would happen to one of us. They are trying so hard to make this show a big success, and to welcome tourists—especially Americans. 
     And everything in this place is brand-spanking new, from the flowers on the side of the street to the bridges and highways. They had the most civilized, organized taxi dispatcher I’ve ever seen, and the fleet of taxis were all brand-new Toyotas, all beige, with different color tops for the five different companies in the country. We were helped with our luggage, seated, and greeted in English.
     We were three women, all dressed appropriately, with covered arms. When we wore skirts, they were down below our knees. We felt that was just being respectful as guests in a foreign country, and we had absolutely no problems.

Was the airport experience difficult?
I have traveled all over the place, and never, ever, ever have I walked through customs without filling out a single piece of paper. We were all a little apprehensive, but we walked up, and the girl at our booth stamped the passports and waved us off. We got our luggage, customs waved us on, and that was it.
     Everywhere we went, you could tell they were working toward efficiency.

Did you encounter other Americans traveling in Dubai?
We went to a welcome dinner the second night we were there, and the American consulate was telling us that of everybody who lives and works there, only 18 percent are Emirates. The rest represent approximately 140 nations.
     This place is not about oil, or just about oil. It’s about commerce, and they want the best of the best. And that was true in everything we saw.

How did the local people at the boat show respond to you and the idea of yacht charter?
The first day, we were waiting and being polite. But we found out that, as women and foreign women, we had to be tactful but assertive. At first, the people would talk to us but not look at us. They would have an assistant or a son who said, “It’s okay, it’s okay,” and then they would talk to us.
     We talked about chartering, and they wanted to know about chartering in Dubai. They have motoryachts there, these dinner cruises, on smaller boats by our standards. There were two 130-foot motoryachts and a 150-foot motoryacht there, but everything else was quite a ways under 100 feet, say 70 feet. There are tons of them.
     I showed people at the show how easy it is to charter. We had brought mounted charts, and I have a laser pointer that caught their attention, so we could show them how easy it was, say, to fly from Dubai to Turkey and charter there, or anywhere in the Mediterranean. I had a lot of people asking me about where we were and testing my geography.

What would you recommend for CharterWave readers who want to vacation in Dubai?
What I would propose for my clients is to go over and stay in one of these fabulous hotels. I would most likely suggest the Jumeirah Beach Hilton because it’s lovely along there and you’re not far from other activities. You can do the rustic dinner cruise on The Creek, or you can charter these small boats that are like day cruisers, 60- or 70-footers.
     There are other activities in addition to just enjoying the hotel and its amenities. There is fabulous shopping. We went to the Mall of the Emirates, and we bought everything there. It’s like a big vacuum sucking in all the best companies in the world.
     We also went on a desert safari, and I think that anyone who wants to have fun will enjoy this. We were picked up in a brand-new Toyota Land Rover, and we were out in the desert tearing through the sand dunes. It was amazing fun. These dunes are straight up and down. It’s very much like a roller coaster. We went from there to see the sunset in the desert, and we went to a Bedouin village for dinner. They had belly dancers entertaining us, camel rides out into the desert, sand boarding—that’s like surfboarding on the sand. There’s henna tattooing, little booths of trinkets—it was very nicely done.
     You have to remember that you are in a desert, and I love the contrast to the water.

So proper, weeklong yacht charters are not quite an option yet?
They have some pretty restrictive laws regarding charter right now. You can’t just get on a boat and go cruising down the coast. You have to get permission. We talked to the consulate and the Dubai representative, and they said they’re working on easing those restrictions so charter yachts can get in.

When charter yachts are eventually allowed, where might they go?
We met the head of Maritime City, an island being built in the ocean. It’s going to have marinas and shipyards where you can haul out not just large yachts, but also ships. There will be upscale hotels where you can pull in on your yacht and stay.
     What I can envision is the charter yachts in the Mediterranean, this year I noticed a lot of them went to the Maldives after the summer season was over. Why not on the way back stop in Dubai and spend a month or so there? They could haul out, have people fly in for a charter in that area, and then go back to the Mediterranean in a nice circle.

So Dubai would be a good destination for chartering between, say, October and May?
The weather is about the same all year. It was just a little cooler than Florida. The daytime heats up pretty good, and they do occasionally have sandstorms the way we worry about rainstorms. It doesn’t seem as though there is a sandstorm season; they just happen.
     Dubai could definitely be a Caribbean charter season alternative. Even if you go there and split your time there half in a hotel and half on a yacht, it would be terrific.
     The cruise ships are already there. They’ve discovered this area. Yachts, I think they are likely to start chartering in two to three years, if the regulations are changed.
They build things fast in Dubai, and they want the high-end tourism. They know what a Trinity and a Feadship are when it comes to motoryacht brands, so I am optimistic.

If you have additional questions, you can reach DJ Parker at Neptune Group Yachting.