New Year

Cover of New Year, Moment Report No. 04

Moment Report No. 04 · 17 pages · 16 sources

Why do people make New Year's resolutions?

Dates that mark a new beginning make past failures feel like part of an old self, so interest in change peaks: searches for diet rose 82 per cent at the start of a new year. Resolutions help more than their reputation suggests; 46 per cent of resolvers kept up a change at six months, against 4 per cent of non-resolvers.

What the report found

  1. The whole country marks the turn of the year. In a country where most residents were born elsewhere, New Year is a national celebration, with a paid holiday on 1 January for the private sector.
  2. It is the fullest night of Dubai's year. Hotels were 94 per cent full on New Year's Eve 2025, against 84 per cent for December, and room rates averaged more than twice the December level. December brought more than 2 million overnight visitors for the first time.
  3. Shared moments feel bigger. Experiences are felt more intensely when shared with others at the same moment, which helps explain why people pay to stand in a crowd for a few minutes of fireworks.
  4. The new year is the strongest fresh start. Searches for "diet" rose by 82 per cent at the start of a new year, and sign-ups for goal contracts more than doubled. In the UAE, the most common resolutions were fitness, money and family.
  5. Resolutions work better than their reputation. People who made a resolution were far more likely to have kept up a change six months later than people who wanted to change but made none. Goals to do something worked better than goals to stop something.

What is inside

  1. One night for everyone
  2. The night itself
  3. The fullest night of the year
  4. The fresh start
  5. After the countdown

Plus a timeline of the UAE's winter peak, Dubai's hotel and airport figures, a graded list of claims and a five-question checklist.

Who it is for

For anyone who has made a resolution, and anyone in the UAE or the Gulf who sells, hosts or employs around the turn of the year.

How we work

Moment Reports examine how people think and decide at particular points in the year or in life, looking first at the UAE and then at the wider Gulf. Every claim is graded Established, Emerging or Untested. Where researchers disagree, as they do on whether resolutions help or harm, both sides are set out before we say where we stand.

Cite this report

The Why We Project (2026) New Year: Why a date on the calendar changes what we do. Moment Report No. 04. Dubai: Why We Tech Ltd. Available at: thewhyweproject.com