Gerald Lawless

From the construction of Burj Al Arab to the birth of Madinat Jumeirah, Gerald Lawless had a front-row seat to Dubai’s emergence as a global tourism powerhouse. He recalls the ambition, uncertainty and extraordinary speed of those formative years. Few hospitality leaders witnessed Dubai’s transformation quite as closely as Gerald Lawless. He joined Jumeirah in 1997, as Jumeirah Beach Hotel neared completion and Burj Al Arab was taking shape, and would go on to play a central role in the development of some of the city’s most recognisable hospitality landmarks.

Looking back, however, Lawless remembers not only the ambition, but the uncertainty that accompanied it.

He says there are so many memories — usually involving absolute terror and thinking, ‘How are we going to do this?’

“I remember around June 1997, we were demolishing the old Chicago Beach properties to make way for Wild Wadi, while Jumeirah Beach Hotel was nearing completion. I was standing on the 16th floor with a gentleman from the Ruler’s Office, looking across the area that would eventually become

Madinat Jumeirah. I suggested that we should look at that land and consider what could be developed there. The concept began to evolve from there, and eventually I received the call that we were going ahead.

“We opened the Mina A’Salam section of Madinat Jumeirah in 2003 and the entire resort was completed in 2004. We had 875 rooms, kilometres of seawater canals, our turtle rehabilitation work and a major conference centre.”

This was all done within a matter of three or four years, Lawless says. He adds, “I’m in Ireland at the moment, and I sometimes think we would need another lifetime to achieve something like that here with all the planning permissions involved. But in Dubai it was extraordinary to see what could be achieved. There were deeply personal moments too.”

“One of my most special memories was when Nelson Mandela visited. We had a number of South African colleagues working at the hotel, so we lined them all up inside the Burj Al Arab when he arrived.

“He took the time to shake hands with every one of them before going on to stay at the hotel with his wife. That was a very special moment for me because Nelson Mandela was one of my heroes.

“I also remember a tourism industry that was still proving itself. Arabian Travel Market, today one of the region’s largest travel exhibitions, once operated from ‘a red-and-white marquee tent’. Dubai World Trade Centre attracted similar scepticism. He adds: “People would ask, ‘Why do they need something like this? There aren’t enough meetings.’ Well, look at what it became. For me, one philosophy in particular has endured. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has said to me many times, ‘Competition is good for you.’ And he was absolutely right. Competition gets everybody moving.”