Once a tiny port at the edge of a desert, Dubai has grown into a global center for influencer culture, a magnet for social media stars looking to perfect their images in what has become an ideal city for Instagram. As a result, Dubai has quickly established itself as the world’s capital for influencers, with countless Instagram models coming to town to find the most scenic background for their photo shoots.
Influencers live in Dubai because it is popular to do so, and influencers tend to follow trends. Living in Dubai is popular because influencers have been moving there, and the original impetus for this movement was to take advantage of Dubai’s futuristic setting, low income taxes, and ease of access.
Politicians, businesspeople, tourists, and models/social media influencers, especially Instagram models, regularly travel to Dubai from around the world, whether it is for fun or for business, among others.
The Materialistic Appeal of Dubai
Dubai is a city of luxury and prestige, where influencers, entrepreneurs, and large corporations move to enjoy the golden lifestyle, lively social scene, and top-notch amenities year-round. If you are looking to project a richness, luxury, and a high-end lifestyle, Dubai is the place you can head to get it.
As Dubai is known for its luxuriousness in all things great, brands and companies choose to let their influencers feature their products from Dubai, where they are representative of wealth and luxury. Dubai’s lack of historic and natural attractions has forced Dubai to make up for this by creating a destination built almost solely around consumerism, and because their jobs are entirely about pushing products on followers, influencers are a perfect tool for selling them.
The commodification of migrant workers as resources to consume and then be replaced is a steep cost under a facade of clean, uncontaminated luxury — but, conscious of growing outrage, Dubai has co-opted influencer marketing as a fail-safe that can clean up its image and guarantee that its tourist inflows stay steady. The Dubai Tourism and Commercial Corp. even have an Instagram page called Visit Dubai, and it regularly partners with popular influencers to increase its reach.
Knowing this, DTCM (Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing) launched a Live your Story Globally campaign to get some influencers coming to Dubai. By marketing Dubai via Influencers and Celebrities, Dubai has stood out, even in a time of pandemics, as the tourist paradise that never sleeps.
The Pandemic Fueled Dubai’s Growth
Since the start of the pandemic, Dubai’s number of digital influencers has skyrocketed. The recent travel ban, which has stopped all flights out of Dubai to Britain, has seen an exodus of influencers scrambling to return. While the rest of the UK remains under the third national lockdown, a lot of influencers took to Dubai for some sunshine, sea, and sand, saying that they were there on a necessary business trip, which has now become the only legitimate reason for traveling.
While the United Kingdom, which is the most COVID-19-infected country in the world per capita, is in a national lockdown, where mixing, traveling, and outdoors activities are banned, some of Britain’s biggest influencers are venturing into distant climes, with Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), their chosen destination.
If you’re an influencer on Instagram, chances are that you’d like to travel to Dubai or the United Arab Emirates (UAE). If you thought that being an Influencer in Dubai would have a high impact on your engagement on Instagram, then you are definitely not wrong. We have seen a lot of influencers head over to Dubai, but if you are a regular Joe Schmo, you are probably wondering why. No, it is not because of your friends leaving to pop pills without warning you, it is more about the influencers that are increasingly packing suitcases in Dubai.
Dubai Is Economically Appealing to Digital Nomads
The reason why so many entrepreneurs and influencers are choosing to emigrate to Dubai to scale up their businesses is that there is no income tax and social security contributions. In Dubai, there is no income tax, and there is not even corporate tax unless you are in oil and gas, hardly an industry that is suited for influencers. Since in Germany, influencers must pay income taxes (even for benefits of sorts, like free products, etc. Getting a UAE Influencer license is crucial for those Dubai-based influencers making money from advertising and promotions on their social pages.
Influencers in Dubai affiliated with media agencies certified by the NMC do not have to get a UAE influencer license. Influencers will have to get the business license first, such as with Dubai’s Creative Clusters Authority, or twoFour54 in Abu Dhabi. Overall, across UAE and Dubai, 94% of businesses consider working with influencers beneficial for their brands.
The Contemporary Rise of Emigration to Dubai
The 2019 edition of a social media influencers study, conducted jointly by the Dubai-based BPG Group and the market research firm YouGov, found that 73 percent of respondents aged 18-35 in the UAE and Saudi Arabia had purchased a brand or tried a service on the basis of the recommendations of a reputable social media influencer. In 2019, the word influencer was used more than 33.4k times across the UAE across online and social media, according to data from the Quick Search tool by Talkwalker.
In late 2019, social media stars were flown to promote Dubai as a tourism destination, just ahead of models and influencers being invited to the music festival in Riyadh in December; actor Armie Hammer called the festival a culture change on his Instagram.
The campaign also featured videos featuring wide-angle views of the United Arab Emirates, UAE beaches, mosques, mountains, and deserts, shot by a firm working with New Media Academy, an institute in Dubai established explicitly to educate the next generation of social media experts and influencers. Dubai has been drawing influencers from all over the planet for several years; this new crowd is keen to inspire and impress their followers with a slice of paradise.
As Instagram influencers are always looking to grow their portfolios and experience the luxurious lifestyle that it has to offer, they are heading to Dubai and sharing their experiences for everyone to envy. If you live in Dubai and make yourself known as a luxury influencer, you will quickly build your brand and earn tons of money along the way.
