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As meetings, conferences, exhibitions and festivals in the Gulf region once again draw tens of thousands of visitors, and the usual throngs of winter tourists return, one thing is obvious: the entrepreneurial energy, imagination and diversity once synonymous with Western cities have migrated eastward. Across the Arabian Peninsula, a constellation of metropolises — Riyadh, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Jeddah and Manama — have risen to prominence, playing the role that Paris, London, Vienna and New York did in earlier centuries.
Together, they form the beating heart of a region that has moved from the sidelines of world commerce to its crossroads. Supported by vast investments in infrastructure, technology, sustainable urban planning and culture, the Gulf region has become a magnet for talent, capital and ambition from every continent.
It is tempting to attribute the phenomenon entirely to hydrocarbon revenues. Indeed, the Gulf Cooperation Council remains a global energy powerhouse: the region’s crude oil exports in 2023 amounted to nearly 12.4 million barrels per day, representing about 28.2 percent of the global total.
But that alone does not explain the transformation. For example, in the UAE, non-oil activity now accounts for a sizable portion of gross domestic product, having recorded 5 percent growth in 2024 to reach 1.3 trillion dirhams ($350 billion). Countries such as Venezuela, Libya and Angola had petro-wealth but none of them built modern metropolises comparable to Riyadh, Abu Dhabi or Dubai, which lead in global rankings for livability, innovation and economic growth. The difference lies in governance, vision and execution.
In Riyadh, now home to nearly 8 million people, a sweeping transformation is underway under ��������’s Vision 2030. Once a primarily administrative capital, it is rapidly expanding its finance, entertainment, cultural and technology sectors. Mega and gigaprojects such as King Salman Park, Diriyah Gate heritage district, Qiddiya City of entertainment and Sports Boulevard are reshaping its urban identity.
Winning the right to host Expo 2030 has further accelerated the city’s infrastructure improvements, ranging from high-speed transport links and “green corridors” to a plethora of hospitality offerings. The Saudi capital aims to rank among the world’s top-10 city economies and position itself as the Middle East’s newest global metropolis by the end of the decade.
Meanwhile, Jeddah, a long-standing commercial gateway on the Red Sea, combines modern business districts and luxury waterfront developments with a rich cultural legacy, attracting residents and visitors alike. The city is now the focus of massive redevelopment, including the Jeddah Central project, a multibillion-dollar waterfront transformation featuring an opera house, museum, stadium and marina, alongside the nearby Jeddah Tower, which is poised to become the world’s tallest building. These initiatives are designed to cement the city’s status as ��������’s most cosmopolitan coastal hub.
In the UAE, the twin metropolises of Dubai and Abu Dhabi embody the Gulf states’ spirit of reinvention. Dubai’s economy is now 75 percent to 95 percent non-oil-driven. Tourism, trade, transport, logistics and creative industries dominate. It is among the world’s busiest aviation hubs, hosts more than 200 nationalities and functions as globalization on the move. Abu Dhabi, for its part, has utilized its energy wealth to make a long-term pivot to culture, sustainability and global connectivity. Louvre Abu Dhabi, Masdar City and the university-rich Saadiyat Island testify to its status as a center of knowledge and art in the Arab world.

The Gulf region has become a magnet for talent, capital and ambition from every continent.

Arnab Neil Sengupta

Even the northern UAE emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah has begun to assert itself. Once quiet, it has emerged as an attractive destination thanks to pristine beaches, adventure tourism on Jebel Jais and new developments like the upcoming Wynn Al Marjan Island resort, positioning it as a rising leisure and investment hub.
Further along the Gulf, smaller capitals such as Doha and Manama prove that size does not stand in the way of geopolitical and economic significance. Doha’s modern skyline and transport network, showcased by the FIFA World Cup 2022, position it as a hub for sports diplomacy, media and finance. Meanwhile, Manama offers a business-friendly ecosystem and a more liberal social climate, drawing thousands of expatriate professionals to its open regulatory environment and relative affordability.
Gulf cities may embody the zeitgeist of our present era, but they admittedly have very large shoes to fill. Between the 1880s and the post-Second World War period, a number of cities around the world set the standard for civilizational progress, culture and modernity. These metropolises were not just economic engines but symbols of human aspiration — places where art, science and technology melded to redefine what it meant to be modern. They too were magnets for talent and imagination, influencing the intellectual and cultural life of their age in ways that still resonate today.
Take Paris, one of the first major cities to be widely electrified, and for decades the cultural capital of art, fashion and philosophy. Its grand boulevards, Haussmannian facades and the World Expos of 1889 and 1900 became enduring emblems of progress, crowned by the Eiffel Tower as a monument to modern engineering.
London, as the administrative and financial hub of the British Empire, showcased industrial and technological power through its busy port, early adoption of rail and metro systems, and institutions of science and letters that underpinned its global influence. Berlin and Vienna, meanwhile, asserted their modernist identities through avant-garde art, architecture and intellectual ferment, giving rise to movements — from Bauhaus design to Freudian psychoanalysis — that greatly influenced global thought.
On another continent, New York, with its soaring skyline — epitomized by the Empire State Building (opened in 1931) — and the creative dynamism of Broadway, Wall Street and the Harlem Renaissance, became the cultural and financial heart of the New World. Chicago, rebuilt after its great fire of 1871, was a laboratory for urban and architectural innovation, giving the world its first true skyscrapers.
And beyond Europe and America, Buenos Aires, Shanghai and Tokyo captured the glamor of global cosmopolitanism in their turn, each combining local tradition with imported ideas to project an image of vitality and confidence that defined their respective eras.
Fast forward to 2025. Together, the cities of the Arab Gulf region showcase a remarkable urban experiment, one in which state planning, private capital, global connectivity and cultural ambition converge. While significant work still lies ahead in reducing the GCC countries’ dependence on hydrocarbons and diversifying their export flows, they have already built skylines, highways, airports and universities that serve the same symbolic function that the boulevards of Haussmann’s Paris or the skyscrapers of Chicago once did.
In the 21st century, Gulf cities may have become what the great metropolises of Europe, America and Asia once were: places where the future is built.

• Arnab Neil Sengupta is a senior editor at Arab News.
X: @arnabnsg