Selling the creative cities by cultural planning:‘Destination Dubai’as a case study

Cultural tourism and cultural planning are increasingly becoming significant in the context of globalization and the associated growth in urban and regional place competitiveness. Urban theorists and policy-makers are increasingly more recognizing the importance of integrating culture in urban development models. The main aim of this paper is to provide a critical assessment of Dubai’s integration of cultural planning in its approach to tourism development. The paper concludes that rapid modernization and westernization of Dubai define and redefine the approaches for tourism development. ‘Destination Dubai’ does not reliably represent its cultural past, ‘localness’ and indigenous qualities. The paper suggests that embracing a more culturally focused tourism plans may socially sustain local community and identity deteriorated by rapid modernization and Westernization in newly developed modern societies as in Dubai.