Dubai will host the 2009 World Cup Sevens. The International Rugby Board awarded the tournament to the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union, which will host the showpiece event - including a women's World Cup for the first time - in February 2009.
'This is a good result for Asia. I was pleasantly surprised that Dubai beat Melbourne for the hosting rights,' said Trevor Gregory, Hong Kong Rugby Football Union chairman.
The IRB Council was in favour of Dubai, which beat Melbourne by 14 votes to 10. There were no details of the qualifying process. Hong Kong will have to qualify.
Hong Kong, which hosted the World Cup Sevens in 1997 and 2005, had wanted to stage it again in 2009. The HKRFU, which hosts the Hong Kong Sevens, had wanted the 2009 tournament to double up as the World Cup.
But the IRB's criteria that the tournament should be held in the first half of 2009 - before the International Olympic Committee meets later that year to decide on new sports for the Olympics - as well as the fact that existing legs of the IRB Series should continue separately, were targets the HKRFU couldn't comply with.
Syd Millar, chairman of the IRB, made the announcement at the body's annual meeting in Dublin last week.
There were two rounds of voting - apart from Dubai and Melbourne, other candidate cities included Amsterdam, Moscow and San Diego - with Dubai getting the most votes in both rounds.