Dubai has taken off as a globally recognised creative and cultural hub in the past decade. Homegrown creative communities and institutions are bringing local and regional talent to the fore. Our heritage as storytellers, architects and artisans is merging with Dubai’s cultural melting pot, producing a new Arab identity with a worldwide impact.
The emirate is host to landmark events in the region’s media, art, and design spheres – think Dubai Design Week, Sole DXB, Arab Fashion Week, MENA Effie and Dubai Lynx. Dubai’s profile is rising, carving its own space alongside New York, Paris, London and Milan.
Foundations: economic diversification
The emirate’s ascent to creative renown has been on the heels of its business hub proposition. Business-first policies underpinned by our leadership’s progressive economic diversification strategy have attracted significant business, investment, and talent. Dubai Internet City’s launch in 1999 paved the way for the creative economy, a concept freshly emerging from the digital wave. Since then, TECOM Group has proudly remained a cornerstone of this growth.
Dubai Design District (d3), Dubai Media City, Dubai Studio City, and Dubai Production City have provided thriving communities to industries that are the lifeblood of the creative economy. Industry-specific infrastructure, built-to-suit properties and value-added services offer major companies a ready platform for expansion. Dior, BBC, WPP subsidiaries, Zaha Hadid Architects, Google and the like flocked to Dubai, seeking out the broad opportunities emerging locally and regionally, in part due to the emirate’s strategic location.
Artists, storytellers, filmmakers, fashion, graphic and product designers, and entrepreneurs followed suit, forging innovative spaces for creative expression that continue to evolve and expand. Enhanced regulatory framework and visa categories allow more creatives to live, work and create in the emirate with greater freedom, strengthening the community and, ultimately, Dubai’s creative identity.
Economic booster: The creative frontier
The Dubai Creative Economy Strategy has provided clear direction on leveraging this growing community to play a more significant role in our economic diversification strategy. Even before it was announced in 2020, our creative sectors outperformed. Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, revealed that the emirate’s creative sector contributed to 4 percent of Dubai’s GDP, higher than global statistics. Key creative industries also employ more than 100,000 professionals. We see that reflected at TECOM Group, which registered a four-fold increase in creative freelancers between 2016 and 2020.
By launching the Dubai Creative Economy Strategy, the government redirected its focus on creative sectors to position the Emirate as a global creative capital. The results have been almost instantaneous. In 2021, the emirate attracted more creative economy projects than New York, Singapore and Berlin and ranked second globally in attracting FDI in the cultural and creative industries.
Sustaining the momentum
The emirate is thriving at a commercial and business level, and our next goal must be to strengthen our focus on grassroots artists and emerging creators. Entrepreneurship is essential in this endeavour. For sustainable economic growth and innovation, we must continue to deliver flexible platforms that promote startups and talent to deliver and export creativity on a global stage.
Our startup incubator, in5, coworking solutions, D/Quarters, and the GoFreelance package are part of an effort that leverages our vast customer base, infrastructure and global network to deliver opportunities for entrepreneurship across key economic sectors, creative included. However, for such programmes to deliver sustainably, responsibility must be shared.
Public-private partnerships and cross-sector collaboration are key. By pooling resources and networks, we can collectively heighten the impact of our events and platforms to turn Dubai into a model of the creative economy. Not only can we secure Dubai’s status as a global creative capital, but we will also serve as a stage for creatives across MENA and the Arab world.
Follow us on
