Doing business in the United Arab Emirates: the first question isn't "how do Emiratis behave", it's "who really sits at the table"
In the United Arab Emirates, Emirati citizens are about eleven percent of the population. The rest are expatriates — South Asian (the largest share, from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines), Levantine (Lebanese, Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian), Iranian, European, American, African. A city like Dubai speaks dozens of languages every day, operates across multiple time zones by structural choice, and produces business through networks of people who share the same desk without sharing the same culture. It's a multi-layered society that works because it has codified mutual respect as an operational tool, not just as a value.
All the blogs on business etiquette in the Emirates start from the same premise: you're about to meet an Emirati, and we'll explain how to behave. It's a useful approximation for about ten percent of the commercial meetings you'll have in the Emirates. For the remaining ninety percent, it's a map that leads to the wrong place. The first question to ask before entering a meeting in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or Sharjah isn't "how do Emiratis behave." It's "who really sits at the table."
The people you'll actually meet
The purchasing manager of a large Dubai retail group is almost always a Lebanese or an Indian with twenty years of experience in the Gulf. The commercial director of an Abu Dhabi construction company can be an Egyptian, a Pakistani, or a Filipino, and on strategic decisions reports to an Emirati he rarely sees. The general manager of a luxury hotel is probably a European, the chef is French or Italian, the food and beverage manager is Iranian, the restaurant manager is Lebanese, the service staff is Filipino or South Asian. The sovereign fund that potentially invests in your company has an Emirati board of directors and a daily management that's an international mix of profiles from Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, BlackRock.
Understanding who is seated at the table means understanding which cultural code is actually in force in that room. Three typical figures deserve distinct treatment.
The Emirati, when actually present. The most important strategic decisions, in many sectors, ultimately pass through an Emirati decision-maker — owner, president, sheikh, senior government official. When you find yourself in front of this figure, traditional Gulf business etiquette applies in its most complete form. Respect for Islamic traditions is here not an option but a premise. The correct honorific title — Sheikh for men of high rank, Sheikha for women, and in the more formal communications Sayyid and Sayyida as respectful equivalents of Sir and Madam — is a relationship-building tool. Patience in the decision-making process isn't a negative characteristic to manage, it's the way trust is built. An opening conversation about family (your own, not the counterpart's — you don't ask about wives and daughters), about the trip, about the hospitality received, isn't a preamble to abbreviate. It's the meeting, at least in its initial phase.
The long-term expatriate, especially South Asian or Levantine. It's the figure who will concretely manage the commercial relationship in daily practice. He has lived in the Gulf for years or decades, knows Emirati practices but operates with professional codes that mix local tradition and international standards. With this figure the conversation can be more direct, the decision times shorter at the same level, but deference toward the hierarchy remains important. He knows that the final decision, in many cases, isn't his — and this changes the way he presents the proposals to his own leadership. Knowing how to make his life easier, providing him with materials, data, arguments that he can use in the internal negotiation with his own decision-makers, is often more productive than insisting on an urgency to close.
The Western expatriate at the top. European or American general managers of multinational subsidiaries, senior executives in international services companies. With this figure business etiquette tends to be more similar to the Anglo-Saxon one — direct, rapid, data-oriented — but with an important difference. Even these figures, who officially follow international codes, have adapted to the rhythm of the Gulf. Expecting a decision-making speed from London or Milan remains wrong even with a European counterpart, because the system in which he operates follows local times.
What remains true for everyone
Even with the differences in counterpart, some elements of business etiquette in the UAE apply across the board. It's worth treating them with the precision they deserve, because the difference between executing them well and executing them by ear is the difference between building trust and generating slight discomfort for the entire duration of the meeting.
Greetings. The traditional Islamic greeting — as-salam alaikum (peace be upon you) — to which you respond wa alaikum as-salam is an opening formula that always works, not only with Emirati counterparts. Using it doesn't mean claiming to be Muslim. It means recognizing that you find yourself in a cultural context where this formula belongs, and showing that you're there with awareness. The handshake is light, not vigorous — the strong grip is an Anglo-Saxon code that here can come across as aggressive. Often the hand is extended longer than you're used to in Italy; not withdrawing it first is the correct signal. Always with the right hand: the left has connotations of impurity in traditional Islamic practices, and using it — even to pass a document or a business card — is read as a signal of little care. After the handshake, some counterparts bring the right hand to the chest, a gesture of respect: reciprocating it is appropriate.
Greetings, physical contact, gender roles. In the contemporary UAE the greeting practices are more fluid than the canonical guides recount, but one operational rule remains solid: you never initiate physical contact with a person of the opposite sex. If the counterpart extends a hand, you shake it lightly. If they don't extend it, a smile and a nod of the head are the safe default, possibly accompanied by the gesture of the right hand to the chest. The same logic applies to a Western woman who meets a man, and — in business contexts, where you can't presume the cultural background of the counterpart — it applies also between women. Letting the host indicate the register is the rule that never goes wrong, regardless of who you have in front of you.
Business cards. They're presented and received with both hands, or with the right hand alone accompanied by the contact of the left arm. Receiving them with one hand and slipping them into a pocket without looking at them is a small rudeness that's noticed. The correct practice is to take them, read them with visible attention, place them on the table in front of you for the duration of the meeting. The bilingual English-Arabic version is preferable for meetings with high-ranking Emiratis; in other contexts the English-only version is almost always sufficient, because English is the de facto working language throughout the Gulf.
Clothing. Conservative is the correct word, not formal in the Italian sense. For men: dark suit, light shirt, tie. For women: a suit or dress that covers shoulders and knees, contained neckline. In summer outdoor meetings Gulf companies tolerate a shirt without a jacket, but the deviation must be initiated by the host, not the guest.
Timing and prayer. The five daily prayers mark the rhythm of the day, and in particular the Friday prayer at midday is a sacred moment. Scheduling meetings in the prayer windows is a signal of inattention. During Ramadan, the organization of work changes substantially: hours compress, meetings shift to the evening hours, the energy of the days is lower. Approaching Ramadan as an "organizational nuisance" rather than as a context to respect is one of the most common mistakes on first entry.
Topics to avoid. Regional politics, comparative religion, the situation of neighboring countries in tension, the status of the ruling family. They aren't absolute taboos — they're territories where a mistake is easy and the returns are nil. The operational rule is simple: in the relationship-building phase, you don't talk about these things.
The level that makes the difference
Hierarchy in the UAE isn't only a question of respect for the leadership figures during the meeting. It's an operating system that governs the entire decision-making dynamic, and that works in a way different from the one Italian companies are accustomed to.
In an Italian meeting, the person who speaks the most is often the one who decides. In the Emirates, it's almost always the opposite. The person who decides listens. His collaborators speak, asking the technical questions, probing the quality of the offer, evaluating the level of the counterpart. The senior figure intervenes little, and when he intervenes it's to close or open a direction. Anyone accustomed to reading authority from the quantity of words risks addressing the talkative collaborator while ignoring the silent decision-maker, and building their narrative on a level that leads nowhere.
The operational consequence is one: before the meeting, know who is who in the room. Ask your local distributor, your lawyer, the consultant who accompanies you. Knowing that the figure at the end of the table, the one who seems least active, is actually the real decision-maker completely changes the orchestration of your speech. Addressing the crucial passages of the presentation to that figure, while maintaining respect toward the one who is operationally conducting the meeting, is the signal that you've understood how the table works.
The same logic applies to the structure of follow-ups. In the UAE, the document that summarizes the agreements reached and the next steps isn't a formality — it's an active tool for building the relationship. It must be sent within twenty-four hours, in English, to the operational figure who conducted the meeting, with the senior figure copied for information. Never the reverse, never only to the senior figure without the operational one, never only to the operational one without the hierarchical copy.
Internal geography of the Emirates
Even within the UAE, the nuances change based on the city. It's worth naming them, because people often talk generically about "doing business in Dubai" even when the real counterpart is elsewhere.
Dubai is the most international city, the most oriented to global business, where Western practices are most diluted with the local ones. It's the simplest entry point for an Italian company on a first approach. Dominant sectors: retail, hospitality, real estate, logistics, fintech, services.
Abu Dhabi is the capital, more conservative in cultural register, more linked to government institutions and large industrial groups. Dominant sectors: energy, infrastructure construction, defense, sovereign investments, high-end healthcare, culture. The decision-making rhythm is generally slower than Dubai, but the decisions have greater weight.
Sharjah has a more traditional identity, more oriented to culture and education. It's often ignored, but in sectors like publishing, education, and light manufacturing it offers opportunities that the other Emirates have saturated.
The Northern Emirates — Ajman, Ras Al-Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm Al-Quwain — are smaller markets but with specific regulatory and tax regimes that make them interesting for particular niches (light manufacturing, specific logistics, niche tourism).
Gifts and hospitality
Gifts and hospitality deserve some operational precision, because it's an area where the details are noticed. Appropriate gifts: quality Italian artisanal products — Murano glass, fine ceramics, leather goods — art books, objects that tell the story of Italian culture without rhetoric. To be absolutely avoided: any product containing alcohol, pork derivatives, images of subjects that could turn out to be inappropriate in an Islamic context. Sculptures or images of stylized human form are generally acceptable, but when in doubt you steer toward the abstract or decorative object.
The gift is offered with the right hand or with both hands, never displaying it at the start of the meeting as if it were instrumental to the negotiation. It's handed over at the end, as a gesture of closing a relationship that's been built. It's received with the same care, thanking, and it's appropriate to open it in the presence of the counterpart if they give the occasion.
The hospitality received is a systemic given: the Arabic coffee offered at the start of formal meetings — poured by a traditional coffee server, to be accepted with the right hand and drunk in small quantities before returning the cup — isn't a formality, it's the signal that the conversation can begin. Refusing it is a discourtesy that opens the relationship in the wrong way. Drinking it, even if you don't like the taste, is the correct way to start.
Doing business in the United Arab Emirates requires three competences simultaneously: the capacity to read who really sits at the table, the mastery of the operational codes that apply across the board beyond the specific counterpart, and the strategic patience to let the relationship build at the rhythm of the place, not at that of your own commercial plan.
The Italian companies that have established a good presence in the Gulf have done so by investing time in the first visit much more than they had planned, returning a second time before proposing anything concrete, and accepting that the first six or twelve months serve mainly to be recognized as serious counterparts. It's an investment that doesn't translate into immediate revenue. But it's the investment that, once recognized, opens doors that remain open for decades.
The margin of error in a market like the UAE is low. Companies get noticed for what they do well, but above all for what they do badly. A meeting handled superficially in the first encounters produces a judgment that's hard to recover, because the network of relationships in the Gulf is more restricted than it seems and reputations circulate quickly. For this reason, it's worth preparing for the first time the way you prepare for a qualifying session on a circuit you've never seen: studying the corners while stationary, before driving them.