Dubai's new 'Map Your Dubai' campaign puts local restaurants on the map with Google

Dubai: Dubai's best-kept culinary secrets are about to get a lot easier to find. The Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) and Google have joined forces on a new campaign called Map Your Dubai: Insider Edition, designed to shine a light on the homegrown restaurants and cafes that give the city its flavour.

At the heart of the initiative are Google's Local Guides, a worldwide community of volunteer reviewers who shape Google Maps by posting reviews, uploading photos, answering questions and refining location details. For this campaign, Dubai's most passionate Local Guides have built curated, themed lists of their favourite eateries, turning their first-hand knowledge of the city into ready-made guides for everyone else to explore.

The project was unveiled at an invitation-only Breakfast Club gathering at the historic Etihad Museum, where culinary entrepreneurs, regional food creators and senior officials came together. Among them was Ahmad Al Room Almheiri, CEO of the Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Dubai SME), which operates under DET.

Map Your Dubai sits within DET's wider From Dubai, For Dubai movement, a community-driven effort to champion the people, businesses and ideas behind everyday life in the city. The campaign encourages residents, visitors and online communities to choose local, share the stories behind the places they love, and help build a more connected neighbourhood economy.

From today, the public can browse 11 insider-curated lists gathered on the official campaign portal, MapYourDubai.com. Each list links directly to Google Maps, so users can explore the recommendations, save them and visit the spots through their own accounts. Voting for favourite lists opens on June 22, 2026 and runs until July 6, 2026, with the winning Local Guides celebrated across official social media channels.

Anthony Nakache, Managing Director at Google MENA, said the campaign turns everyday local knowledge into a genuine community movement, adding that Google is focused on giving small and homegrown food businesses the tools to stay competitive and reach new audiences.

For Dubai SME's Almheiri, the initiative reflects what sets the city apart, a place defined by the diversity of its people and strengthened by partnerships. He noted that the campaign builds on Dubai's tradition of community-led storytelling, from #MyDubai onwards, and shows how public-private collaboration and local voices can translate digital discovery into real economic value. By raising the profile of local F&B concepts and homegrown brands, he said, Map Your Dubai reinforces Dubai's standing as a global gastronomy hub and supports the long-term, sustainable growth goals set out in the Dubai Economic Agenda, D33.