Cities around the world have made significant changes in their landscapes, using urban design and related strategies as a means to attract corporations, investments, events and tourism, thus becoming targets in a competitive global market. This essay discusses how governments enact major urban transformations in order to become a touristic and entrepreneurial ‘must’. Based on a comprehensive study of the contemporary literature this essay proposes a set of strategies that have been applied by worldly famous urban tourism destinies in search of attracting international visitors and businesses. Such strategies have been copied by a number of ‘second class’ global cities as well, including Brazilian metropolises such as Rio, where governments adopt them in order to market the city, having the FIFA’s World Cup and the Olympic Games as their outspoken motive to sell the city.