Framing Emirati Womanhood: Heritage, Modernity, and Soft Power in Tourism Discourse

This paper examines how Emirati womanhood is framed within the tourism discourse of the United Arab Emirates, analysing how gendered representation operates as both a cultural and political instrument in nation branding. Drawing on framing theory and informed by feminist perspectives on tourism and media representation, this study explores the visual and textual portrayal of women on official online platforms, including Visit Dubai, Visit Abu Dhabi, Emirates Airlines, and the UAE Ministry of Culture and Youth. These materials constitute a state-sanctioned narrative of national identity that integrates cultural heritage with modernity. Through qualitative framing analysis, four recurrent interpretive frames were identified: guardian of tradition, empowered professional, cultural ambassador, and modern national icon. Each frame constructs Emirati women as both rooted in heritage and central to the UAE’s vision of progress and global leadership. The analysis demonstrates that these portrayals harmonise heritage and empowerment rather than position them as opposites. Emirati women are represented as mediators between tradition and modernity; figures through whom the state communicates moral legitimacy, cosmopolitanism, and social stability. These findings align with broader research on Emirati women’s narratives of economic and professional agency, revealing a consistent cultural mechanism of legitimation across both institutional and personal discourse. The study argues that tourism imagery functions as a communicative tool of soft power, affirming the UAE’s global identity as a progressive Arab nation while domestically reinforcing social cohesion and cultural continuity. The 2025 election of an Emirati woman, Shaikha Nasser Al Nowais, as Secretary-General of UN Tourism symbolically extends these representational strategies into global governance, converting visual representation into institutional leadership. The paper concludes that the UAE’s tourism discourse serves a dual purpose, showcasing gender equality to international audiences while reaffirming national authenticity at home, thereby contributing to a distinctive, culturally grounded model of gendered modernity. Theoretically, the paper advances the conceptualisation of gendered nation branding as a communicative process of cultural legitimation, wherein representations of women reconcile heritage and modernity through culturally coherent expressions of empowerment. While not engaging in-depth with soft power theory, the study highlights its relevance in understanding how tourism can serve as a site for producing credible and sustainable forms of gendered modernity. Emirati women thus emerge not merely as symbolic figures of authenticity but as central mediators of the nation’s image, embodying a model of progress that aligns cultural continuity with global visibility.