Atlantis Dubai offers free waterpark access amid tourism hit to Gulf

For anyone feeling a bit tense, Atlantis Dubai has a suggestion: come ride a waterslide. The resort on the tip of the iconic Palm Jumeirah is offering free day passes to its waterpark — the world’s largest — through March 22. Tickets normally run about $85. The goodwill gesture (or brazen PR stunt, depending on your standpoint) comes less than two weeks after an Iranian drone struck the Fairmont The Palm hotel roughly three miles away, injuring four people. Tourists are essential to Dubai’s economy, which, unlike its Gulf peers, has almost no oil or gas reserves.