For many years since the start of the new millennium, Dubai was the example of the modernization of the Persian Gulf in the twenty-first century while rapidly building place brand image awareness ( Govers and Go, 2009). It provides food for thought on how some Gulf States, or rather, Emirates, are competing for nation brand hegemony in the region. With the Spring 2011 Qatar talks on Libya, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen (2011) published an interesting paper on ‘Qatar and the Arab Spring’. At the same time, the results of this study offer several routes for new future research. Therefore, all in all, it seems that Dubai still has a lot going for itself. However, this consists of generally very negative buzz around the opposition protests and government reactions. Lastly, a dramatic change that has occurred in the second quarter of 2011 is the fact that social media buzz (more so than mainstream media attention) for Bahrain has drowned out the competition in the region. Nevertheless, the competition has been able to attract lots of positive attention for short periods of time occasionally overshadowing Dubai in recent years with the Abu Dhabi and Bahrain Grand Prix and the selection of Qatar as host for the 2022 FIFA world cup soccer. This buzz is generally positive with the exception of the enormous amount of noise around the Dubai debt crisis announcement end of 2009. It shows that Dubai has attracted and still attracts most attention in mainstream as well as social media. This article therefore studies the competitive brand position of Dubai, compared to Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Bahrain, through content analysis of global social media using Radian6. However, while the image of modern Dubai has been challenged by the global financial crisis, it seems that competition in the region has stepped in. This has resulted in a schizophrenic image among the global audience combining Middle-Eastern stereotypes with images of a modern, rich, glamorous metropolis.
Dubai is probably one of the best known examples of a city brand that has established itself in a very short period of time while riding the waves of globalization.
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