The mood amongst people in Dubai on the street, the taxi drivers, the locals, the expats… it’s roughly the same. Relief punctuated by a certain degree of “now what” and a smattering of “so what?”

For the westerners, there is clearly a case of, thank goodness it’s over. There is a strong touch of concern. The US Warden (Consular Official responsible for the security of the visitors who are US citizens) in Dubai (since I am registered for the STEP program) sent me a warning to stay clear of crowds and avoid places likely to encounter anti US sentiment.

Further I am supposed to call the folks at home who might be worried and tell them how good I feel and that it is all good here and really I am fine.

For the local expats from South Asia/the sub continent particularly Pakistan – there was a sense of relief. The one Pakistani native (a taxi driver) I spoke to was happy that it was over.

Arabs are by nature a sceptical bunch and distrustful of governments. The general sentiment I felt was that the governments concerned had an ulterior motive. Isn’t that true of all governments?

The UAE is a territory where many people regarded Osama bin Laden as either a threat or irrelevant – it’s somewhat surreal that the general feeling is that someone knew something and that this was all a planned event rather than an opportunistic event. Pakistan is highly dependent on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) for aid.

There are many Saudis here at the Arabian Travel Mart.

Speaking of the Saudis, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – KSA as it’s referred to – is the driver of source traffic for the whole region. Things are a little tough for the Saudis at the moment.

Many of their prime destinations for travel are blocked to them. Two of the biggest markets for travel are currently not places you want to visit, namely Egypt and Syria.

Yemen and Bahrain are also popular places for short haul trips. This has resulted in a boom time for Dubai and Abu Dhabi. During the last EID (religious holidays for Muslims), there were many hotels which were sold out in Dubai and people were actually wandering between hotels looking for any accommodation. Saudis are known for making last minute decisions often within hours of making a trip.

Saudis, like many Arabs, love to talk and discuss politics. They tend to heave a healthy degree of scepticism of any Government. The Saudis I spoke to who are professionals in the travel business are in the main members of the middle class.

I have known and worked with many of them for many years. I say this because I am able to trust what they are speaking about. In small groups and individually, they voiced their opinion that there is no possible way that the governments of the involved countries didn’t know about this for some time.

They cite the fact that the entire town where the operation took place is a military installation not unlike the US city of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. That fact seems to strengthen this belief.

The event is a major one but while it was dinner conversation and everyone was talking about the passing of OBL, it won’t change much. Things will be as normal. The world will go on. Yes it’s back to business.