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Today’s Etcetera is a Middle East special.
We are sharing why we have expanded into the region, the ideas and cultural shifts we are seeing on the ground, and what this move means for the work we create next.
Almost ten years after we started Example, we are opening our first Middle East office in Dubai.
Over our near decade in business, we have shaped culture and commercial success across APAC - helping hotels, bars, brands and destinations become places people talk about and return to. The move into the Middle East is the next step in that journey, into a region that is reshaping global expectations of what a modern tourism economy can be.
The Middle East is redefining hospitality, culture and brand experience on a global stage. The pace is unmatched, but what’s driving the region forward isn’t speed alone - it’s a powerful shift in creative ambition. That energy, that momentum, is precisely why we’re here.
Andy and I are leading this chapter across two regions - Andy from Dubai, steering the Middle East office and global creative direction; me from Australia, driving global operations and delivery excellence. With our inspiring team in strategy, PR, social, content and placemaking, we’re already working with foundation partners like Bacardi–Martini (across AMEA and Pacific culture strategy), Blue Coral Concepts, Addmind and more soon to be announced. Each partnership reflects the ideas and cultural momentum that brought us here.
For us, the premise is simple. The Middle East is uniquely positioned to shape the moments where people and brands intersect. These experiences deserve to be rich with story and soul, creating lasting resonance and helping set a new standard for how hospitality continues to act as a cultural catalyst across the globe.
This special edition is our way of marking that step. It captures some of the shifts, signals and stories we are watching as we build the next chapter of Example from Dubai and Sydney.
By Rebecca Jarvie-Gibbs, COO
Hospitality’s new centre of gravity from our CEO Andy El-Bayeh
Since landing in Dubai, one thing has been clear. The Middle East has become the world’s most ambitious testbed for hospitality. It is no longer defined by scale, investment or speed alone. It is building a reputation for refinement and taste.
Cookie cutter hotel restaurants and generic ideas of luxury are giving way to a creative confidence that is changing how the Gulf attracts skilled craftspeople and audiences. The brief is shifting from “build it bigger” to “make it feel like here.”
Homegrown chefs, chocolatiers, musicians, designers and cultural operators are not sitting between international brands anymore. They are redefining the taste of the experience economy and showing what hospitality can feel like when it is rooted in a proud local identity.
You can see it in the rise of restaurants like Orfali Bros. and Moonrise, in the global reach of Dubai chocolate makers, and in the way Middle Eastern raised chefs are now setting the standards that visitors travel for.
Across Saudi and the UAE, this confidence sits alongside a shift in what people want from social spaces. Zero proof nightlife, matcha bars and design led cafés are answering local tastes rather than global defaults. The same care shows up in new listening rooms, pop up party collectives and micro festivals that put sound, light and community ahead of spectacle. Youth focused platforms and nightlife writers across the region are already framing these spaces as the next wave of social life in the Gulf.
Festivals and culture builders are reinforcing the change. Platforms like MDLBEAST are building full ecosystems for regional artists, from masterplanning and stage design to sound art, while projects in AlUla and Diriyah invite architects, visual artists and musicians to shape the same story together. You feel that same cross pollination in old town districts where heritage streets become galleries, stages and playgrounds for a new generation.
The result is a region building with a clearer sense of who it is and what it wants visitors to feel. Hospitality is becoming a meeting point for food, fashion, sound, design and digital culture. Rapid infrastructural ambition combined with this creative self assurance is what makes the Gulf feel so distinct right now and why its cultural moments are starting to set the benchmark for brands and destinations worldwide.
From where I am sitting, the Middle East knows what it wants to project to visitors. That clarity is reshaping hospitality into something richer and more intentional.
The rest of the world is paying attention. So are we.
Across the Gulf, matcha has gone from niche import to status drink, popping up in concept cafés, luxury hotels and influencer feeds. It’s not replacing Arabic coffee (nothing could) but it is signalling a shift in taste markers. The region’s long-standing coffee heritage is now sitting alongside a new wave of wellness-led, aesthetics-driven beverages that say as much about identity as they do flavour.
From AlUla to the Empty Quarter, desert retreats are quietly becoming the region’s most interesting wellness labs. Think sound baths under the cliffs, off-grid trailers with no Wi-Fi, hammam rituals and stargazing that feels more like ceremony than amenity. Wellness here is less about cucumber water and more about how nature, history and stillness combine to reset people who usually live at city speed.
Saudi and the UAE are investing in gaming districts, esports festivals and year-round tournaments that feel closer to Coachella for controllers than trade shows. Riyadh’s Esports World Cup and new production hubs are pulling in creators, cosplayers and global teams, while malls refit floors into gaming lounges.
Quick hits of insight
01 UAE hotels hit 83% occupancy last year
One of the highest figures globally, showing strong demand and sustained traveller confidence.
02 Dubai now has more than 13,000 restaurants and cafés
A sign of both opportunity and pressure, with operators navigating saturation, rising costs and fierce competition for talent.
03 Chinese travellers are choosing the Middle East over Europe
Drawn by culture, safety, modernity and ease of travel, bookings are reshaping tourism flows across the region.
Senior Manager for Masterplanning at MLDBEAST
I’m an architect shaping the spaces where culture and experience meet. I’ve always been fascinated by how people move through space; how sound, texture, and light shape emotion. That curiosity led me from Abu Dhabi to Australia, South Korea, and now Saudi Arabia, where I masterplan and design cultural experiences for MDLBEAST that turn landscapes into living stories.
What’s the last thing you saw, read visited or heard that made you stop and think?
A 3AM sound check in the mountain valleys of AlUla. The desert was completely still until one bass note echoed between the cliffs, as if the landscape was breathing. In that moment, I realised how alive nature already is; all we do as creators is respond to it. It reminds you that design is not about control but about working in harmony with what already exists.
I felt that same grounding feeling in AlUla's Old Town, where the landscape mixed with soft lighting, raw textures, and quiet shadows make you feel deeply connected to place and history.
What shift in culture are you feeling before everyone else catches on?
Culture’s next wave isn’t about making things louder; it’s about making them real. The world’s craving honesty again: texture, craft, meaning. In the Middle East, that truth is showing up as a creative renaissance that’s bold, grounded, and beautifully ours.
Who do you think is making culture better right now?
The cross-pollinators! The people who can’t help but mix things up. DJs collaborating with architects, fashion designers teaming up with scientists, artists working with doctors to turn data into emotion. Refik Anadol’s work has been one of my favourite inspirations, blurring the line between architecture, AI, memory, and immersive art in a way that feels both futuristic and deeply human.
What’s a small habit that’s changed how you live or create?
Taking “me time” seriously has changed how I live and create. Stepping away from the noise helps me reset, sometimes in silence, sometimes blasting Saâda Bonaire’s “you could be anything, you can be free” and letting the rhythm take over. That space brings clarity, and clarity always finds its way back into my work.
What’s you go-to reminder when you’re off your game?
I’ve got a tattoo on my arm that I share with two of my best friends. It says “fix your life.” It’s not as dramatic as it sounds. It’s a funny, honest reminder that every day you can tweak, rebuild, or upgrade something. It’s my own little daily renovation project: version 2.0 of me, always under construction, always a work in progress, and that’s the fun of it.
One under-the-radar place or experience in Saudi?
Al Balad in Jeddah, hands down. The raw architecture, the history, the layers of time in every corner, it just feels alive. You have to stop at Al Basali and get some fresh fish cooked the Saudi way in an environment that's very true to the place, no question. But the real magic is during Balad Beast, when we take over the entire UNESCO heritage city and turn it into an immersive playground of sound, light, and culture. It’s chaotic, beautiful, and so uniquely Jeddah.
We are an earned-led culture agency. We create and amplify the world’s most talked-about brands, destinations and experiences.
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