Dubai’s new city brand

Dubai recently unveiled its new city brand during the course of the celebration of the Arabian Travel Market.
Its revamped visual identity is part of an ambitious initiative set forth by the United Arab Emirates, which proposes to welcome 20 million visitors annually for the year 2020, and move to position itself as the most visited city in the world.

Moreover, the new brand identity is considered to be a broad trademark with a dual purpose: attract tourists and foreign investment.

Results from a study made public at the beginning of this year positioned the United Arab Emirates (UAE) amongst the best country brands, obtaining 19^th. place in a group of countries that included the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Germany.

The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) was recently created to disseminate Dubai’s culture of success and the spirit of its people facing up to a challenge.
The Dubai brand is an integral part of its global marketing campaign, which will be formally announced by the end of the year, and will be used to portray a unified communication tone between the different governmental departments and agencies and its citizens and guests.

Its new logo stands out in the way the word “Dubai” is reflected in both, the Arabic and Roman alphabets. This embodies Dubai’s multiculturalism and inter-ethnic tolerance, thus projecting a historical and contemporary approach and forward-looking and open approach to new ideas from any corner of the world.
However, this new brand goes beyond a new logo, it is a new way of talking about Dubai, and a novel way of displaying how the city will provide added value to investors and visitors alike.

The brand will be supplemented with a new digital platform, equipped with a revamped website and an official destination marketing app. Both will be designed in order to inspire and inform throughout all consumer journey phases, with greater focus on new experiences in the destination.
“The objective behind the implementation of a unified Dubai brand is part of a larger consolidated marketing effort to unify the city under a sole brand and identity – Dubai. The new brand primarily focuses on the idea that Dubai is a city where incredible things happen.”, said DTCM’s Director General Helal Almarri.