For twenty years, the major French museums have undergone profond changes that raise fears about cultural mobility. In this context, the inauguration on 11 november 2017 of the Louvre-Abu Dhabi Museaum in the Middle East on the small Island of Saadiyat (United Arab Emirates) raises the question of the tourist destination. In reality, we must question the « living places » of this territory of the Middle East which has difficulties in assertint its identity at the crossroads of several continents. How does the Louvre brand constitute a universal model of territorial recomposition in this region of destination and residence ? Will culture be enough to promote Abu Dhabi ? From the theoretical framework of Hirschman & Holbrook (1982) two studies were conducted. The first one at the Abu Dhabi Visitor Center (2013) allowed for several interviews with tourists. The second, during the exhibition « Birth of a Museum » (2014) in Paris, wich presented the collection of the future museum, was also an opportunity to conduct participant observations. As a result, the recognition of the French public brand for geographical destination engages in unusual processes whose universal staging mobilizes a universe to the detriment of recomposition of the territory.
