Fashion tourism is increasingly used to communicate lifestyle, identity and symbolic value, yet the literature remains dominated by established fashion capitals, retail-led shopping tourism and tourist-only destination image studies. Less is known about how fashion-related tourism touchpoints operate in emerging Gulf destinations, where luxury retail, modest fashion, cultural institutions, national identity and visually shareable urban experiences intersect. Addressing this gap matters because Qatar’s destination brand is being shaped through culture, luxury, creative industries and curated visitor experiences, but the contribution of fashion tourism to this positioning remains underexplored. This exploratory study examines how fashion tourism may contribute to Qatar’s destination brand by shaping perceptions of cultural identity, luxury lifestyle, visual appeal, memorability and recommendation intention. A cross-sectional survey collected 114 valid responses from participants who had engaged with at least one fashion-related tourism space in Qatar. The sample was heavily weighted toward local citizens (79.8%), younger respondents (72.8% aged 18-24) and female respondents (74.6%). The findings should therefore be read as exploratory evidence of local, resident and limited visitor perceptions rather than representative tourist-market evidence. Descriptive statistics and thematic interpretation of open-ended responses were used to identify patterns in experience evaluation, destination image and behavioural intention. The findings suggest that fashion tourism can support Qatar’s image as a modern, visually attractive and culturally diverse destination when luxury retail is connected to cultural storytelling, modest fashion, museums, exhibitions, design aesthetics and lifestyle spaces. Respondents associated luxury malls and designer retail spaces with sophistication, exclusivity and lifestyle quality, while museums, exhibitions and modest fashion spaces were associated with cultural authenticity and local identity. The study argues that Qatar’s strongest fashion tourism proposition lies not in luxury retail alone, but in the strategic combination of global luxury, Qatari cultural expression, modest fashion, design aesthetics and curated visitor experiences. The study offers recommendations for tourism planners, cultural institutions and destination marketers seeking to use fashion tourism as a distinctive tool of cultural tourism marketing and destination differentiation.

Keywords

Fashion tourism; destination branding; Qatar; cultural tourism; luxury tourism; destination image; memorable tourism experiences.