As someone who lives in Saudi Arabia I'm interested to hear other candidates responses. I'm an American living over here as an expatriate so great question.
I don't think FT has to be everything for everyone, nor should it try to be. It doesn't have to be the google of the travel world (although it is to many of us) in all languages in my opinion. Allow other sites to fill those niches as they probably already have.
In regards to proposing new forums, I believe without allowing it to open we will never really know how much traffic it would generate. I don't see anything wrong with opening up a new forum and giving it a period of time to evaluate if it should stay long term. There is no harm in that, but when you choose to not even allow that forum to open it will surely upset members. What does it hurt to open it on a trial basis and allow it a chance to be a permanent fixture.