Cultural Sensitivity Analysis The X Development Company, which has its headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, is a major player in the hospitality and tourism industry. The company specializes in a broad range of products including heritage racing, holiday resorts, hotels, and restaurant ventures. The company has been quite successful locally; within the past two decades, the company has established 8 tourist resorts and 15 well-known hotel brands spread all over the East Coast and employed well over 5,000 employees. The company is planning an expansion to a foreign market. The company’s management appointed a committee to explore opportunities for expansion into the Middle East market ahead of the company’s planned expansion. The committee’s report recommended the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai as a potential investment destination for the company. The culture of the UAE differs from that of America in many ways. Due to these cultural and economic differences, the company must design a marketing strategy for entering this market. Among the cultural differences to be considered include; language differences, socioeconomic differences, and religious differences.. Language Differences Just like in other Middle East nations, Arabic is the major spoken language in UAE. UAE citizens use Arabic as an official language in the workplace, in religious learning, and in business communication ( Dubai Tourism Still on the Rise , 2009). Thus, for company X, whose main clientele comprises English-speaking people, a strategy to overcome the language barrier should involve hiring interpreters and Arabic-speaking customer care personnel to promote communication with the locals. Socioeconomic Differences There are vast socioeconomic differences between UAE and America. The growth of UAE’s cities including Dubai is largely attributed to oil discovery. The gift of oil also transformed the Dubai society from a traditional and conservative to modern and innovative society. Dubai has many multinational corporations due to UAE’s favorable investment conditions, low taxation, and strategic geographical location ( Dubai Tourism Still on the Rise , 2009). The tourism industry is well-developed with 255 hotels including a 7-star hotel. Thus, the company will need to design a strong competitive strategy in terms of pricing and offer a range of products. Religious differences While Christianity is the most dominant religion in America, Islam is the dominant religion in UAE. Most of the UAE’s citizens are Muslims with about 78% of them being Sunni Muslims ( Dubai Tourism Still on the Rise , 2009). Besides religion, Muslims have various religious events in their annual calendar including Ramadan celebrations. Also, UAE, unlike America, is a collectivist society with regard to ownership of property. In the UAE society, because of religion, women have limited rights with regard to ownership of property. Marketing Strategies From the analysis, it is evident that the UAE and America have opposite cultures. The marketing strategy including the product mix (4Ps) must reflect these differences. The following is a proposed product mix for company X for entering the UAE market. The company should focus on the horse racing industry, which is not well-developed in the UAE. A partnership with a Dubai-based construction company to establish a state-of-the-art horse track will be a good way to start. Dubai boasts of the most expensive races in the world, including the $1 million Godolphin Mile race. America’s Baltimore’s Preakness Stakes, which is organized by Pamlico Race Course generates millions of dollars in