Skift Take
The #MyDubai initiative was a first step towards telling a more human story about the city, but Dubai's challenge moving forward will be making the city relevant outside of its iconic buildings so that visitors will travel far to visit and have reason to come back after the bucket list items are ticked.
Editor’s Note: Skift has started a new series of interviews with CEOs of destination marketing organizations where we discuss the future of their organizations and the evolving strategies for attracting visitors. Read all the interviews as they come out here.
This continues our series of CEO interviews that began with online travel CEOs in Future of Travel Booking (now an e-book), and continued with hotel CEOs in the Future of the Guest Experience series.
Dubai is a relatively new player on the global tourism map. It doesn't have the historical architecture of Rome or the cultural significance of Paris; it's built its reputation as a global mega-city with enough "world's largest" attractions to back it up.
The city, however, is looking to broaden its appeal as it marches towards 2020, a year when it's promised itself to reach 20 million tourism arrivals and host the six-month World Expo.
With 80 percent of its tourism still coming from the leisure market, Dubai is investing heavily in family-friendly attractions such as theme parks and outdoor activities. It is also incentivizing hoteliers to build up the three-star and four-star hotels needed to expand its business travel sector.
The city-state wants to slightly shift its global perception from the iconic superlatives that it's known for to a cultural hub where 200 nationalities live in peace, locals boast about their hometown, and visitors realize that there's more than the world's largest mall to experience.
Skift recently sat down with Issam Kazim, the CEO of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing, to talk about his organizations' strategies to marketing Dubai, its challenges in shifting potential visitors' perceptions, and the digital tools needed to do both.
An edited version of the interview can be read below:
Skift: What are the most important marketing channels that you're using today?
Issam Kazim: Many channels have played a significant role in putting Dubai on the map. Look at what Emirates Airlines has done, how local products like Jumeirah Hotels has worked hard to create the destination, and the private developers with landmarks such as the Burj Al Arab, Burj Khalifa, and Palm Islands. They’re each in their own silos but they really created Dubai and put it on the map.
Traditional media also played a big role. Many of the publicity stunts that we did on the glitz and glamour side of things, like the opening of the Atlantis with c
