Dubai halts live hotel entertainment acts after 100s of Covid-19 rule breaches

On Wednesday night, the hospitality industry was sent a circular by Dubai Government’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTM), ordering venues to suspend bands, DJs, dancers and live entertainers performing in hotels and restaurants.

It comes after Covid-19 cases rose to a record high with 3,506 new cases of Covid-19, from 162,945 tests. It also followed a rare move by the Government of Dubai issued a statement to rebut a media reports portraying the city as a party destination despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Dubai’s media office tweeted: “During the last three weeks, Dubai Tourism have issued more than 200 violations of noncompliance with guidelines and closed down around 20 establishments.

“To ensure public health and safety, all entertainment permits issued will be on hold effective immediately. Dubai Tourism will continue to evaluate the progress with the health authorities.”

While recognising that the suspension would hit some venues harder than others, hospitality industry operators said the new ruling would be supported.

One fine dining venue operator said: “There will be sector support for this. We have been incredibly well led since day one. I think they have made the right decisions at the right time.

“We’ve had a number of calls this morning wondering about brunches. Now a brunch that is heavily reliant on stilt walkers, dancers, magicians, clowns, any performers of some sort, will be affected obviously strongly. But if you’ve got a venue that is very food focused then it business as usual.

“There are of course some venues who have built they’re offering on entertainment and music and this will hit them. For us it’s business as usual, we’ve still got the same amount of people booked we just won’t have a DJ playing.

“I really do genuinely believe that they’ve got us through this, they won’t be making decisions like this without good reason.”

Holly Sands, editorial director, Time Out Group in Dubai, said: “It’s another blow for the nightlife scene, which is still, for the large part, on a careful and conscientious journey to recovery.

“And the irony is, the situation we’re seeing in terms of case numbers isn’t being driven by performing artists – it’s the actions of small number of people who continue to disregard pretty clear guidelines from the Dubai government.

“Musicians, DJs, performing artists of all talents, many of these guys don’t have the  luxury or safeguards of full time employment, so when the music stops, so does the income.

“Following clear, reasonable social distancing advice and legislation set out by the government helps keep everyone safe, and keeps these guys – and the entire hospitality industry – in work.”

Following the suspension, nightclubs will only be allowed to play playlists, said founder and CEO of 7Management Rabih Fakhreddine, which operates venues such as SevenSisters and AntikaBar in DIFC.

He said: “About 70 percent of Dubai’s nightlife venues offer some form of live entertainment, including live DJs, so the impact will be big. But this was expected especially after the holiday season.

“So we understand this decision and we respect it as an attempt to flatten the curve after the spike in cases and while the vaccine is being rolled out.

“I want to take this opportunity to stress on the importance of respecting the guidelines set by the Dubai authorities post the suspension, since some places were clearly violating it, especially that Dubai in the past six months managed to position itself as the only city that is open.”

Antonio Gonzales, CEO and founder of Sunset Hospitality Group, (pictured below) operates 21 venues across six countries, including two nightclubs one of which – Stage – is in Dubai’s Meydan.

He said: “The government is best placed to make these decisions, we’re a single operator so we respect their call on this.

“It will impact us to a degree but we’d moved away from using performers such as live DJs and bands while the restrictions were in place so largely we will continue to operate as normal,

“We’d closed our nightclubs already, we didn’t want to reopen before we could give our guests the full experience. We didn’t really see those opening until Eid this year, giving the vaccination programme to bed in.

“We are privileged to operate in Dubai compared to other parts of the world, but we shouldn’t take that for granted. We need to follow the rules and the advice. After all this has never happened before so we are all learning as we go.”

Another tourism operator with multiple venues agreed that the new ruling was a timely reminder for the public that the pandemic hasn’t gone away.

“Given that this is a temporary measure it’s understandable, what they’re doing in a given the recent rise in cases.

“We are very lucky and people know how fortunate they are relative to other parts of the world right now. Hopefully with the vaccine the light is at the end of the tunnel. It’s a race to the vaccine and it’s a race against the virus.

“It is a reminder that everyone has a personal responsibility to comply with the guidelines, stick to social distancing, follow the instructions of the staff if they are asked to stay by the table for example.

No time period has been announced, but it is “until further notice”.

Dubai has started a massive free vaccination campaign, with the UAE so far administering over 2 million vaccine doses, covering a fifth of its population.

In its statement on Wednesday, the Government of Dubai Media Office reitereated the emirate “continues to maintain the highest levels of protection against the pandemic and compliance with preventive measures”.