Dubai: the City of Superlatives

When I first moved here, Dubai’s PR engine had just got going. Today, it is undoubtedly working overtime and the city is all about superlatives; the biggest mall, the tallest building, the most luxurious hotel, the largest advertisement hoarding, etc. There isn’t a day or week that goes by without a major launch or announcement that is a first of its kind or possibly the grandest. Talking of advertisements, the recently published Advertising Spend Report of Pan Arab Research Centre showed that advertising spend in the UAE has reached $1.3bn in 2007 from $869, that’s a 50% increase. Therefore, it came as no surprise when recently Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced that within the first two weeks of its Dubai Metro Naming Rights project launch, over one hundred and sixty companies had expressed interest. Another 160 had already submitted official Request for Information (RFI) documents through the RTA website. The project essentially gives organizations and institutions the opportunity to associate their name to 23 stations (from a total of 47 stations). According to a report on ArabianBusiness.com, the RTA has received interest from as far afield as Japan, Greece, Spain, the United Kingdom and India, surpassing all expectations. By the way, in keeping with tradition, the Dubai Metro Naming Rights project claims to be the first programme of its kind, which uses funding raised through a naming rights initiative to improve transport services.

Photos of Dubai

I just came across a photo album of Dubai on flickr entitled “The World’s Fastest Growing City" (http://flickr.com/photos/broknman/sets/72157594154414242). Well worth a look if you want to see the extraordinary development that’s going on here.