To keep Dubai top of mind and introduce the Nordic travel trade and media to cultural and authentic Dubai, we recently hosted a virtual event about Dubai and Arabic coffee culture.

At the event, a guide from the Sheikh Muhammad Center for Cultural Understanding (SMCCU) shared background information about the Arabic coffee culture as well as experiences and places to visit in Old Dubai. The guide showed the participants how to traditionally hold the coffee cup, gave instructions on how the coffee should be prepared and the etiquette around the coffee culture in Dubai. Do you for example know what to do with the cup, if you don’t want the host to serve you more coffee? (Tip: Shake it!)

To create a complete coffee experience at home, we sent all participants a small gift box with a traditional Arabic coffee cup – a gahwa – together with Arabic coffee and dates to enjoy during the presentations.

Afterwards, the CEO of Dubai Tourism did a presentation with recent news from Dubai and focus areas for 2021 and 2022 – including update on the COVID situation in Dubai, the upcoming Expo 2020 starting in October, new openings and more.

This was followed by a Q&A session about coffee culture and culture and traditions in Dubai in general.

The event was a great success and the participating travel agents and journalists all got to learn more about the cultural side of Dubai and Arabic coffee.

If you are interested in trying out the Dubai coffee culture yourself, one of the attending journalists made a guide on how to brew Arabic coffee – you can find it here.