Meanwhile, a company just opened a small ski resort indoors (a bit like in Dubai) 10~15 minutes by car from the city center: https://snooslo.no. The goal is to have it open and at -4ºC all year long. This is so backwards :(
Mentally said goodbye to day trips, I'm simply living too far from the Alps now it seems. Going back to my youth in 80s and 90s, I remember skiing from late November all the way to, say, March. At resorts that closed over a decade ago due to a lack of snow.
They aren’t hedging their bets by learning how to work and create things. This will come back to bite them.
But in the mean time, let’s keep snow skiing in the mall with all this foreign money.
For some unpredictable value of “pretty liberal” perhaps?
For instance, sex out of wedlock or cohabitation are illegal, including for tourists.
”If you holiday in the emirate unmarried and you come to the attention of the authorities ... if it’s then discovered you’re sharing a room and a bed you can be jailed and then deported.”
They look the other way almost all the time - until they don't.