Shop till you drop in Dubai

50 years ago, Dubai was just a tiny nomadic fishing village in the desert of the Arab Gulf. Today, it's playing host to one of the world’s most extreme shopping events.

Over the weekend, the Dubai shopping festival got underway, attracting shopaholics from around the world to the UAE’s flashy emirate. Retail is one of the sectors Dubai is developing, as it tries to move away from its dependence on crude.

Dubai does not want to rely just on oil any longer.

In the glitzy Gulf Arab emirate, where you can go shopping while watching sharks swimming or go skiing in 50-degree temperatures, the run for the luxury brands at a discount is on again, for its 18th edition since the start-off in 1996.

The city, which is home to the world’s tallest tower Burj Khalifa, counts enough visual attractions to earn the cash.

Crude production was once the core business of Dubai, turning it into the Middle East’s financial hub that it is today.

Oil revenues only account for about 6 percent of its GDP, while the pillar industry is the services sector.