When the terrace closes

Every year at the start of May the outdoor furniture starts disappearing in the Gulf.

Not all at once. A hotel takes the far end of the terrace out of service first. Then the shade sails come down. Then the tables move inside and the misting fans go on for the guests who still insist on sitting out. By the middle of the month the rooftop that held the most expensive seats in the city in February is somewhere you walk through on your way to a lift.

The same fortnight, Cairo goes the other way. Chairs come out onto the pavement. The coast starts taking bookings from people who will not arrive for six weeks. On a long weekend like this one, the tables nobody wanted in January are the only tables anybody wants.

The rate calendars say it before the weather does. Gulf summer pricing is already loaded for June, and it is low. The coastal rate for the same weeks is climbing.

So the region's outdoor season changes hands in May. One half of a regional plan is closing its best asset and the other half is opening one, in the same fortnight, under a quarter that has been signed off as summer.

Summer in a regional plan is not a season. It is a question of whose.