Dubai is one part of the UAE, itself an extremely small place. The vast majority of the economy of the UAE is based on petroleum. If you consider that tourism a

Dubai is one part of the UAE, itself an extremely small place. The vast majority of the economy of the UAE is based on petroleum. If you consider that tourism and construction are conducted on the back of "wonders" and infrastructure that came about due to the petroleum industry, that majority gets larger. If you consider that Dubai's existence as a "financial hub" is entirely predicated upon the petroleum resource trade including shipping and refining, that majority balloons even further. "Before oil was discovered in the 1950s the UAE's economy was dependent on fishing and a declining pearl industry. But since oil exports began in 1962, the country's society and economy have been transformed." (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703998 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703998) The question is, do you believe the economy of Dubai would decrease by more than 1% if all petroleum business within the UAE were halted tomorrow? I think it's clear that yes, the economy would react significantly. That 1% number comes from a two-year-old shill piece from Bloomberg (click through the Wikipedia citation if you don't believe me) that doesn't show its data or the breakdown by sector for all of Dubai's GDP.