Interview: Dubai Tourism CEO on Branding Dubai for the Future
Photo Credit: Dubai Tourism CEO Issam Kazim opens an event. Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing
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
