Dubai courts investors after Iran strikes rattle business confidence

Nearly 300 senior business leaders gathered at Dubai’s newly renovated Meydan hotel on March 10 as Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum pressed the city’s response to Iranian strikes across the United Arab Emirates. The specially convened Dubai Majlis, hosted by the Government of Dubai Media Office, was meant to discuss strategies to reinforce Dubai’s economic resilience and to keep concern from hardening into a wider loss of confidence.

Officials asked direct questions about how to bring tourists back, how to bring investors back and what the government could do to support businesses as the conflict raised the risk of capital flight and an exodus of firms from the city.

The meeting helped spur a central bank liquidity package, and the Central Bank of the UAE later approved a five-pillar Financial Institution Resilience Package on March 17. The central bank said the country’s financial system had shown resilience and that the package was backed by assets of about AED 1 trillion and foreign-exchange reserves above AED 1 trillion. Dubai later pledged 2.5 billion dirhams, or about $681 million, in support, aimed mainly at tourism and retail, while the broader response also included fee deferrals and administrative easing.

Dubai welcomed 19.59 million international overnight visitors in 2025, up 5% from 18.72 million in 2024. Dubai Airports said Dubai International handled 95.2 million passengers in 2025, the busiest year in its history and the highest annual international passenger traffic ever recorded by any airport.

Official figures showed Dubai’s GDP rose 4.4% in the first half of 2025 and 4.7% in the second quarter, to AED 122 billion.