FOCUS 71 Sand, Skyscrapers and Heritage “It is strange to imagine that 20 years ago Heritage and Tourism. Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai’s main thor- Globalization and Shifting Values in oughfare, was mostly sand” (“Dubai Expo”). These words, from the official the United Arab Emirates website of Dubai Expo 2020, are a proud celebration of the extraordinary and rapid transformation of one of the two main cit- ies of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Features from sand to incredible and styl- ish skyscrapers designed by the most- courted star architects in the world, the site continues, show how Dubai has be- come “one of the world’s most modern urban landscapes.” At the same time, be- yond the obvious and understandably Marxiano Melotti self-celebrative tone, we may notice an interesting concept of the past. The new Cultural heritage was a major factor in the mote recreational and tourist activities. amazing Dubai appears to be built on formation of politics and identity for na- Dubai and Abu Dhabi are two significant sand—i.e., in the traditional Western view, tion-states. Yet in Europe, a gradual over- cases. Their intangible heritage helps to on nothing. What was there before sky- coming of old nationalism has paved the build local identity and to attract tour- scrapers? Only sand. The site, of course, way for its postmodern iteration, where it ism, together with the cities’ luxurious avoids emphasizing this Westernizing im- is interwoven with tourism, the market, hotels and their ultra-modern shopping age and immediately presents a particular leisure, and entertainment. As such, mon- malls. Moreover, city administrations idea of heritage which, by mixing past uments, museums, and archaeological have even invited some major Western and present, gives a strong idea of a win- sites have become important elements to museums to open local branches, to in- ning continuity. “From the Persian Royal thematize tourism and consumption. crease tourism and confirm their new Road to the Han Dynasty’s Silk Road, from Over the past decades, some rich Middle status as global cities. the trading posts of the 19th century to East countries—including the United the hypermodernity of today’s UAE, peo- Arab Emirates—have adopted a similar Keywords: Heritage; Museums; National ple have always converged here” (“Dubai use of heritage: it has been used to build Identity; Postmodern Society; Tourism; Expo”). The strength of the local heritage or reinvent national identity, and to pro- Middle East; United Arab Emirates is related to its immateriality: the abstract Middle East – Topics & Arguments #03–2014 FOCUS 72 idea of “crossroads” becomes a concep- tual basis allowing us to interconnect tra- dition and change, history and contempo- raneous life. In such a perspective, hypermodernity—deprived of any possi- bly controversial meaning—appears to be a necessarily historical destiny of this re- gion and a sort of intangible heritage, which presents itself through the material- ity of huge and futuristic buildings. The reference to the Silk Road is quite in- teresting. Under its harmless historical as- pect, it evokes a traditional image of the East, built through centuries of literary and more or less mythical representation, dat- ing back to Marco Polo and arriving direct- ly to colonial and postcolonial Oriental- ism, including some current sophisticated narratives marked by contemporary “po- Figure 1: Between tradition and modernity. Abu Dhabi skyline. litical correctness” (such as, for instance, Source: Abu Dhabi Tourism Culture Authority. the Silk Road Project and ensemble of the tradition has become a celebration of a Not all countries have the spatial opportu- acclaimed French-American cellist Yo-Yo new modernity—one that includes Euro- nity of the Maldives, which has built a suc- Ma). But the Emirates’ Silk Road is some- pean and North-American citizens as mere cessful tourist industry by gating interna- thing different, as the “Heritage” section of tourists and consumers. tional tourism in resort islands, which the same website explains: “A new Silk maintain quite an effective separation be- Road that connects rapidly growing eco- Yet, this relationship with the past is not tween inhabitants and tourists, local val- nomics, such as India, China, Brazil and the uncontroversial. Any urban transformation ues and tourist practices, and “traditional” African continent. Safe, inclusive and cos- so deep and rapid refl ects social change, heritage and the new, themed heritage of mopolitan, Dubai is now one of the world’s which necessarily entails cultural change. the resorts (Melotti, “Cultural Heritage”). top ten urban tourist destinations” (“Heri- This “road”—directly open to hyper-mo- Dubai and Abu Dhabi are built upon hy- tage”). (In 2013 it attracted more than ten dernity, global business, and international per-modernity, and this mix of worlds and million visitors, the population of a mega- tourism—may create problems in a society cultures has a constitutive character. The city.) Thus, an image dear to the Western with Islamic values respectful of tradition. site “Dubai for Tourism” exalts this nature, Middle East – Topics & Arguments #03–2014 FOCUS 73 which apparently makes Dubai “a unique ization and thematization of local heritage. Of course, the mall is not only a sign of the destination that is both a dynamic busi- Everything is a potential tourist attraction, new local identity; it is also a meaningful ness centre and a tourist paradise, offering and may be sold as a tourist highlight: institution of modern and contemporary more attractions, shopping, fine dining “from rugged mountains and awe-inspir- Western society, where a large part of the and quality hotels” (“Dubai Tourism”). ing sand dunes to sandy beaches and lush history of globalization has been written. If the Maldives, in the tourist imagery, are green parks, from dusty villages to luxuri- Shopping malls, as spaces of hyper-con- a “tropical paradise” where you can live in ous residential districts and from ancient sumption where “we the people” may your luxurious resort as a “new Robinson houses with wind towers to ultra-modern form and affirm our identity as global con- Crusoe” with your personal Mr. Friday, the shopping malls” (“Dubai Tourism”). sumers, are monuments to Western and Emirates present themselves as a “shop- global society. Yet malls have also played per’s paradise.” a fundamental role in the development of Here, according to the mainstream of Malls and Museums UAE tourism. These huge and amazing contemporary consumer society, and to Heritage and business appear indissolu- spaces for consumption have been part of the trends of postmodern experiential bly linked in a typical postmodern rela- a policy aiming at promoting tourism and tourism, it is the shopping (at least in the tionship, which is presented as a histori- increasing the number of its destinations expectation of the local Department of cal connection. The section devoted to by creating and advertising a modern sys- Tourism and Commerce Marketing) that “Heritage” in the Dubai Expo website, tem of amenities and attractions (Hender- defines the core of the tourism experi- after a quick reference to the local history son). In fact, the Dubai Mall—the “mother ence in Dubai, and hence the tourist im- that “dates back to 5,500 BC,” explains of all malls,” as was ironically but aptly de- age and identity of the country. “From the how “archaeological evidence suggests fined by a well-known tourist guidebook timeless tranquillity of the desert to the those earliest inhabitants engaged in (Walker et al. 294)—forms a brick in the lively bustle of the souk, Dubai offers a ka- trade with their neighbors—a trait that re- new UAE global heritage, bridging the leidoscope of attractions for visitors” mains vital to the country’s identity today” gap between worlds as the ancient Silk (“Dubai Tourism”). With this image shed- (“Heritage”). Road once did. ding some light on the local idea of heri- In other words, the ultra-modern shop- The other huge shopping center in Dubai, tage, wilderness is interestingly defined ping malls would be the endpoint in a the Mall of Emirates, hosts Ski Dubai, “the as “timeless”: the past seems to disap- long historical process. It is a sophisticat- city’s most incongruous attraction” (Walker pear—or rather, to become something ed kind of theming: one has not even to et al. 298). With its five ski runs and ice continuous, which helps to tie together use architectural elements to suggest, un- sculptures, the facility satisfies other as- tradition and today’s reality. derline, or reinvent a tie with the past, as pects of tourists’ and consumers’ multi- But, of course, hypermodernity has al- happens elsewhere; one may simply experiential demand. The insertion into a ready arrived: the “lively bustle of the present a modern building as a piece of global system of habits of leisure and con- souk” shows precisely a process of folklor- history. sumption deeply affects the whole envi- Middle East – Topics & Arguments #03–2014 FOCUS 74 nations, which were able to collect, con- quer, or buy relics from any part of the world and any culture. The presence of alien pieces in the museums was proof of control exerted over other countries and other cultures. In postmodern society, which has to some degree attempted to overcome colonial and national scenes, spaces of identity and political negotiation have shifted else- where. Malls are some of these new spac- es, deserving of mobility and tourist gaze, which as temples of leisure and consump- tion display through merchandise a sys- tem of values for contemporary society. But this expression has probably already been surpassed. Over the last years, de- spite the global fi nancial crisis that partial- Figure 2: Snow in the desert. Ski Dubai in the Mall of the Emirates, Dubai.