After years of innovation and incremental achievements, Dubai has officially been named an autism-friendly destination. Robbie Hodges reports 

Dubai continues to establish itself as a future-forward destination with the announcement that it has become the first certified autism destination in the eastern hemisphere, joining destinations like Greater Palm Springs Mesa, Arizona in the US.

Only last month, Globetrender conducted an extensive deep dive into the trend for our premium subscription service, Volt, in which we covered niche tour operator WanderRock, innovations from western hotel groups, and interviewed Mark Blakey, CEO of Autism Parenting Magazine, about the trend’s trajectory. Dubai, one of the trend’s early pioneers, also featured heavily. 

The city’s new accreditation is just the latest in a slew of autism-friendly milestones achieved by the city-state in recent years. In January 2023, DXB became the first autism-friendly airport in the world, while Emirates was named the world’s first autism-certified airline in January 2025. 

The title was awarded by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES) after a prolonged series of training and infrastructure initiatives rolled out by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism. 

In recent years, the city has worked hard to make its tourism proposition more accessible and inclusive for all residents and visitors. Across the city’s aviation ecosystem, hotels, attractions and transportation, staff undertook extensive autism and sensory training. 

Meanwhile sensory guides and hidden disability lanyards have been introduced across certified locations, each of which underwent an onsite review and received custom sensory guides developed by IBCCES.

The autism training was delivered to tourist-facing workers across the city via ‘Dubai Way’, an online training platform created by Dubai College of Tourism. New starters will need to take the self-paced course which features training modules, interactive sessions and videos all aimed at encouraging greater acceptance and accommodation of neuro-diverse travellers.

According to Visit Dubai, the past two years have seen 70,000 people trained in autism and sensory awareness; more than 300 city hotels enrolled in the training and certification process; and more than 15 attractions achieve certification from IBCCES, including beaches and parks.

Myron Pincomb, IBCCES Board Chairman and CEO, said: “Dubai is raising the bar for accessible tourism, and IBCCES is honoured to support this initiative. This achievement represents a significant step in ensuring that all visitors, including autistic people and individuals with sensory needs, can explore and experience everything Dubai has to offer with confidence and ease.”

The achievement aligns with the priorities of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 – an agenda set out in 2023 that aims to double Dubai’s economy by 2033 by making it one of the world’s top 3 cities for living, investing and working.