What What's On Dubai Covers
What's On Dubai covers the full range of consumer leisure and lifestyle activity in the emirate. Its editorial scope spans food and drink, nightlife and bars, hotels and staycations, entertainment and events, fashion and beauty, wellness and fitness, family and kids, shopping, and travel from Dubai. Within these categories, the publication produces daily digital content, regular list features and guides, event previews and reviews, and longer-form lifestyle pieces, all aimed at a reader who is actively deciding how to spend their leisure time and discretionary income in one of the world's most active consumer markets.
The ITP Media Group context matters for understanding What's On's position in the UAE media landscape. ITP is the region's largest English-language media group, and What's On sits within a portfolio that includes Arabian Business, Harper's Bazaar Arabia, Esquire Middle East, Grazia Middle East, and a range of specialist trade and consumer titles. This portfolio creates potential for cross-title coverage that brands working with ITP's commercial teams may be able to develop, though editorial decisions at What's On are made by the publication's own editorial team and are not determined by group-level commercial relationships.
What's On Abu Dhabi is a genuinely useful extension of the brand's reach for companies operating across the UAE rather than in Dubai alone. A new hotel or restaurant opening in Abu Dhabi, or a brand with presence in both markets, has a natural opportunity to develop simultaneous coverage across both titles with a coordinated pitching approach. The Abu Dhabi and Dubai editorial teams operate separately, so this requires separate pitches tailored to each publication's audience, but the shared brand identity and editorial culture make the What's On network one of the more efficient routes to UAE-wide lifestyle coverage in English.
How What's On Differs from Time Out Dubai
What's On Dubai and Time Out Dubai are the UAE lifestyle sector's two main English-language reference points, and they cover broadly similar territory. But the differences between them are meaningful for PR strategy, and understanding those differences helps determine which title to prioritise for a given campaign and how to frame pitches for each.
The most significant practical distinction is What's On's deals and offers dimension. The publication actively curates promotional content for its readers, maintaining a dedicated offers section that covers restaurant deals, hotel packages, shopping promotions, and entertainment discounts across Dubai. This makes What's On distinctly more receptive to pitches that include a reader-facing offer or exclusive alongside the editorial news hook. A restaurant opening pitch that arrives with a complimentary drinks-on-arrival offer for What's On readers, or a hotel activation that includes an exclusive rate for What's On bookers, has additional editorial hooks that a purely editorial pitch lacks. This deals culture does not mean What's On is less editorially credible, but it does reflect the publication's more commercial orientation toward reader conversion alongside editorial storytelling.
What's On has historically had stronger nightlife and bars coverage than Time Out Dubai, reflecting its editorial identity as a guide to the full spectrum of Dubai's social life including its active licensed venue scene. New bar openings, cocktail menu launches, venue redesigns, and late-night entertainment concepts have natural What's On editorial homes that they might struggle to find with the same prominence at Time Out. For brands in the nightlife, premium spirits, and bar industry sectors, What's On is typically the primary target and Time Out the secondary one.
The fashion and beauty coverage in What's On is more developed than in Time Out, reflecting ITP Media's broader fashion portfolio and the editorial expertise that flows across the group. A fashion brand launch, a beauty product launch with a UAE retail component, or a fashion event with a consumer activation in Dubai sits more naturally in What's On's editorial frame than it would in Time Out, where the city-guide orientation tends to prioritise things-to-do and where-to-eat over fashion and beauty editorial.
Story Types That Regularly Get Coverage
New openings are the editorial currency of what What's On does best. The publication's readers turn to it first when they want to know what has just opened in Dubai, whether that is a restaurant, bar, hotel, spa, fitness studio, retail concept, or entertainment venue. A well-presented opening pitch, with confirmed launch date, strong images, a genuine concept, and the practical details a reader needs to visit, is the most reliable route to What's On editorial coverage regardless of where the company is in its lifecycle or how established its Dubai presence already is.
Hotel staycations and room-package activations are a structural editorial priority. Dubai's resident population has developed a strong staycation culture, and What's On covers hotel packages, weekend escape offers, and property activations with a level of editorial depth that reflects genuine reader demand. Properties that have new packages to announce, renovation reveals, seasonal activations, or pool and beach club experiences with a time-limited promotion angle are well positioned for What's On hotel coverage. The deals dimension noted above is particularly relevant here: a staycation pitch that includes an exclusive rate or added-value element for What's On readers is meaningfully stronger than one without it.
Nightlife launches and bar programmes attract consistent editorial attention. Dubai's bars and licensed restaurants operate in a market with specific cultural constraints, and What's On has built specialist editorial expertise in this category over many years of coverage. A new bar opening, a signature cocktail menu launch, a rooftop bar's seasonal opening, a licensed beach club activation, or a long-running venue's significant renovation all have strong What's On editorial cases. The publication's nightlife coverage is trusted by its readers in a way that functions as a genuine recommendation engine for the licensed venue sector.
Fashion events and beauty launches with consumer touchpoints in Dubai generate consistent What's On coverage, particularly when they involve a retail presence, a pop-up concept, or a ticketed event that gives readers something to attend. The publication covers international brand launches in the UAE market, homegrown UAE designer stories, regional fashion weeks and styling events, and the broader intersection of fashion with Dubai's lifestyle culture. Beauty coverage spans new product launches available in the UAE, salon and spa openings, wellness brand activations, and the growing professional wellness and aesthetics sector in the city.
Family and kids content is a consistently high-traffic category that is often underserved by PR teams focused on adult dining and nightlife. What's On readers include a substantial number of families with children, and the publication's family section covers new kids' experiences, family-friendly hotel packages, school holiday activations, kids' dining concepts, and entertainment venues with family appeal. A family-oriented pitch, or a pitch that explicitly addresses the family dimension of an otherwise adult-focused property, can open editorial doors at What's On that are harder to access through the food-and-drink or nightlife routes alone.
What's On Awards
The What's On Awards are among the most read consumer hospitality recognition events in Dubai, covering categories across restaurants, bars, hotels, spas, fitness, family experiences, and entertainment. They carry genuine consumer trust, and a What's On Award is a marketing asset that hospitality brands display prominently and reference in their communications well beyond the publication cycle.
Unlike some regional awards programmes that operate primarily as commercial ventures, the What's On Awards are taken seriously by the editorial team as a genuine reflection of what the publication's editorial coverage, reader engagement data, and staff assessments suggest are the best experiences in the city during the review period. Nominations from readers play a role in the process for many categories, which means that venues with an engaged customer base, one that is likely to nominate them when prompted, have an organic advantage that is difficult to manufacture through PR activity alone.
The practical implication for PR strategy is that building What's On editorial coverage consistently over time, so that a venue is visible and positively represented in the publication's content throughout the year, is a more effective path to awards consideration than attempting to generate concentrated coverage during an awards-adjacent window. Venues that appear regularly in What's On best-of lists, opening roundups, and feature coverage develop the editorial profile that awards juries and reader nominations reflect when awards cycles come around.
How to Build Your Pitch
A What's On Dubai pitch should open with the specific experience or announcement and why it is relevant to the publication's audience. Name the venue or brand, describe the concept or activation in concrete terms, and provide the hook: what makes this new, interesting, or worth a Dubai resident's time and money. What's On readers are experienced consumers of Dubai's hospitality and lifestyle offering, and a pitch that presents something genuinely novel, well-conceived, or meaningfully different from what already exists in the market is more likely to generate editorial interest than one that describes a version of something the city already has in abundance.
Practical details should be part of the first pitch, not an afterthought. Include the confirmed launch date or event schedule, the address and neighbourhood, opening hours, price range or ticket price, and a booking contact or reservation link. What's On editors work to tight publishing schedules and often need to move quickly on opening stories; a pitch that requires multiple follow-up exchanges to obtain the basic information a reader would need tends to lose momentum against pitches that arrive complete and immediately publishable.
A reader offer, where available and appropriate, strengthens a What's On pitch in a way that it would not necessarily improve a pitch to Time Out or the business press. An exclusive offer for What's On readers, a complimentary element for early bookers, or a promotional rate available only through the publication gives the editorial team something additional to offer their audience and creates a reason to prioritise the pitch over equally strong but less commercially complete alternatives. This does not need to be a significant commercial concession; a small, genuine exclusive element can be enough to tip the balance.
High-resolution images remain essential. What's On's digital content is image-led, and the publication's Instagram presence means that striking food photography, well-shot interior images, or visually distinctive event photography has value beyond the article itself. If professional images are not yet available at the time of pitching, say so explicitly and provide a realistic delivery date. An editor who is genuinely interested in covering the story is often willing to hold it for strong visuals; one who has to make assumptions about what the images will look like is less likely to commit editorial space in advance.
Route pitches to the correct section editor. What's On's editorial team is structured by content category, and a restaurant pitch to the hotels editor or a fitness story to the food desk wastes editorial goodwill and slows the process. Taking the time to identify which section your pitch belongs to, and directing it to the editor responsible for that section, signals that you understand the publication and have done the preparation that separates a thoughtful pitch from a broadcast press release.
Timing and the Dubai Lifestyle Calendar
What's On covers the same Dubai lifestyle calendar as Time Out, but its editorial planning and the priorities it assigns to different windows reflect its own audience and editorial identity. Understanding where the two publications converge and diverge in their seasonal coverage helps PR teams plan pitching activity more efficiently across both titles simultaneously.
The Dubai Food Festival in February and March is high editorial priority at What's On, with the publication covering new restaurants opened to coincide with the festival, DFF-specific menus and activations at existing venues, special pop-up dining experiences, and the broader celebration of Dubai's food culture that the festival generates. Pitches timed to DFF should be placed in early January to allow the editorial team time to plan features and schedule visits; late pitches during the festival itself often miss the main coverage windows.
Ramadan requires careful timing and tone adjustment. What's On covers Ramadan activations positively and in depth, particularly the Ramadan tent, iftar, and suhoor dining experiences that represent significant commercial opportunities for Dubai's hotels and restaurants. The publication's Ramadan editorial is planned well in advance, and pitches for Ramadan dining experiences that arrive a month before Ramadan begins tend to find a receptive editorial environment. Pitches that arrive after Ramadan has started have typically missed the main features planning cycle.
Summer activations are particularly relevant for What's On given the publication's strong deals orientation. During the June to September period, when many Dubai residents reduce their leisure spending or travel abroad, What's On's readers are precisely the people who remain in the city and are actively seeking staycation offers, summer deals at restaurants and hotels, and indoor entertainment options. A strong summer deals angle can actually generate better What's On editorial outcomes during this period than a similar pitch would achieve during the busier October to May season, because the editorial demand for good summer content exceeds the volume of strong pitches received.
The December and January period, anchored by Dubai Shopping Festival, is the city's most commercially active window and generates significant What's On retail, dining, and entertainment coverage. Pitches for DSF-adjacent activations, festive dining experiences, NYE events, and new year wellness content should reach the editorial team in October at the latest. What's On's December content planning begins considerably earlier than most PR teams anticipate, and pitches that arrive in November for December features often find the key editorial slots already committed to earlier submissions.
What's On Dubai sits at the intersection of editorial lifestyle coverage and consumer decision-making in a way that gives it genuine commercial value for brands in the hospitality, entertainment, fashion, and retail sectors. Its deals orientation, strong nightlife coverage, ITP Media ecosystem connections, and UAE-wide reach through What's On Abu Dhabi make it a distinct and complementary channel to Time Out Dubai rather than a substitute for it. The most effective UAE consumer PR strategies treat both publications as simultaneous targets with adapted pitches rather than competing alternatives.
If you are planning a Dubai hospitality launch, a retail activation, or a broader UAE consumer PR campaign, our UAE PR service covers editorial outreach to What's On alongside the full range of UAE lifestyle, consumer, and business media. Get in touch to discuss your campaign.