For the third consecutive year, Dubai made it on the list of the top 25 countries in the world and a new scattered geography of opportunity is beginning to emerge.

Dubai has maintained its top spot in the MENA area on Kearney's Global Cities Index, with a score of 23rd globally and a place in the top 25 for the third year running. According to the report, a new distributed geography of opportunity is starting to emerge in the middle of a changing globalization scenario, with well-known rising hubs all over the world — especially in the Middle East — experiencing exceptional advances in their global city performance. For instance, Abu Dhabi rose ten spots in the global rankings, reaffirming its position as the world's most important hub.

The goal of the Global Cities Index (GCI) is to put a number on how well a city can draw in, hold onto, and produce international flows of capital, labor, and ideas. The five main dimensions that cities are evaluated based on are, information exchange, human capital, political engagement, cultural experience, and business activity. The average GCI ratings have steadied after declining for a few years, with considerable gains observed in cities in Africa and the Middle East. In particular, Riyadh, Muscat, and Doha — the major cities of the Gulf countries — saw improvements of nine, eight, and seven points, respectively, in their overall rankings.

The main factor driving this growth was the human capital dimension, which performed exceptionally well. They were able to draw in a lot of migrant talent and tourists by taking advantage of the return to pre-pandemic levels of freedom for international travel.