Alabbar: We might go back to normal by mid next year

Dubai’s retail sector will see a gradual recovery by the middle of 2021 as it carefully emerges from the coronavirus crisis that disrupted tourism, the chairman of Emaar Properties, the emirate’s largest listed developer, said after Dubai Mall reopened.

Dubai will rebound from the crisis in “better shape” than other cities across the world, thanks to the size of its commercial hub and its lack of dependence on oil, Mohamed Alabbar, the mall’s developer , told CNN.

“I don’t see a V-shape,” he said when asked about a timetable for a recovery based on data from businesses such as Dubai Mall and Noon.com.

“I expect that we really have to go gradually, moving upward towards the end of the year, if there’s no major outbreak there, then probably into end the of the first quarter next year to mid-next year maybe we’re back to normal.”

While commenting on the delay in Expo 2020 to October next year, he said the Covid-19 vaccine is likely to be available by March-April next year. Hence, the pandemic should be under control and “we should use Expo a time of celebration to unite the world after dreadful times.”

The National