Abu Dhabi tourism to get a boost from 'Sex and the City 2'

Abu Dhabi tourism is set to get a boost from the film ‘Sex and the City 2’, despite not a single scene having been shot in the city, analysts have said.

The film, which sees Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, and three friends, leave their hometown of New York to visit the UAE capital city.

Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai officials banned producers from filming in the cities. A source told US Weekly, at the time the show’s salacious content was seen to be at odds with the UAE’s more conservative culture.

However, the National reports on Monday, analysts said scenes like the women riding camels in the desert and at a local market – filmed in Morocco – will promote Abu Dhabi’s tourism sector.

“Although the audience knows it is filmed somewhere else, it still has a positive impact on the destination where the movie is set,” Dr Ian Michael, a professor of marketing at Zayed University in Dubai told the paper.

“Research to date is proving that this benefits the place where the movie is set, in this case Abu Dhabi, and to a lesser extent where the movie is actually filmed.”

The film has a release date of next month.