Boycott Dubai: Western Tourism Falls Out Of Love With The UAE

The shift in international perception of the United Arab Emirates that has occurred in the last two decades is a result of perhaps one of the greatest marketing campaigns in recent history. Soft power investment in football, music and business combined with regional power accumulation has elevated the UAE to key player status. But for the ever-watching eye of social media, the veneer is starting to peel off. 

Allegations of “sportswashing” have long followed the UAE’s attempts to invest and integrate into the international sporting community, particularly regarding ownership of Premier League clubs. Popular club Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour, the deputy PM of the UAE and a member of the royal family, and has come under fire after benefitting substantially from Emirati investment. Amnesty International’s Gulf researcher David Kenney previously alleged, “The UAE’s enormous investment in Manchester City is one of football’s most brazen attempts to ‘sportswash’ a country’s deeply tarnished image through the glamour of the game.” Amnesty have also targeted City fans in campaigns to free activists imprisoned in the UAE. 

However, dissenting voices were widely sidelined as despite complaints from human rights groups and debates in the Houses of Parliament, the UAE’s investment and ownership campaigns continued. Sports officials also seem not to have learned from the debacle that was Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup in 2022, as a joint UAE-Qatar-Saudi bid is expected for the Rugby World Cup. 

Tourism has been steadily on the rise, with capital city Dubai a magnet for holidaymakers and businesses alike. In 2025, tourist spending is set to reach a record of AED 228.5 bn, up 37% from 2019’s previous peak and accounting for 13% of GDP. This was bolstered not least by the social media obsession with “Dubai chocolate”, a chocolate bar featuring pistachio and knafeh pastry, that erupted in 2023. For a while, the UAE, Dubai and anything vaguely associated became symbols of new luxury, effectively promising the experience of London or New York in the Middle East.

In 2025, however, it seems the novelty has abruptly worn off. The very public social media break-up with Dubai can perhaps be attributed to the rise in xenophobia and islamophobia on the right, overtaking the previously held business-first mentality. On the other hand, the dissatisfaction with travel to the UAE could reflect a desire for slow travel and minimalism, a rejection of the hyper-consumerism many associate with Dubai. A more interesting factor, however, is the politics of how younger people travel. The popularity of the BDS movement amongst largely student populations has emerged into a wider movement calling for the boycott of other countries accused of perpetuating genocide and imperialism.

The UAE is facing such allegations for its involvement in the Sudan conflict. Sudan is taking the UAE to the ICJ, alleging the country is "complicit in the genocide" of the Masalit community in West Darfur, through its backing of the RSF (Rapid Support Forces). The RSF are a paramilitary group accused of committing atrocities against the regions non-Arab ethnic groups since 2023. It is alleged that along with diplomatic and military support, the UAE has become a hub for conflict-gold smuggled out of Sudan. Sudan officially cut diplomatic ties with the UAE in May of this year. The UAE’s normalisation of relations with Israel has also been criticised by many activists.

Last year, rapper Macklemore kicked off a growing trend of boycotting the UAE by cancelling his concert in Dubai, stating “If I take the money, while knowing it doesn't sit right with my spirit, how am I any different from the politicians I've been actively protesting against?” 

It remains to be seen whether this trend will escalate to a long-term decline in tourism for the UAE. What is clear, however, is that the country’s carefully curated PR image has collapsed overnight. Widespread allegations of human rights violations and support for genocide are not exactly compatible with the UAE’s preferred image of quiet luxury and perfectly manicured landscapes. The UAE has lost its’ glossy sheen, in a series of events that were perhaps inevitable. Western tourism is nothing if not fleeting and fickle; imperialism, though often subtly accepted, is not chic when it is being publicly dissected in an international court of law.

Illustrations: Will Allen/Europinion