Despite possessing unique potential in the field of tourism, Ahvaz city has not yet achieved its true position on the national and international tourism map and lacks a strong and distinctive urban tourism brand. This lack of success is due to insufficient integrated planning and inefficient marketing. In this regard, creative tourism appears to be an effective strategy for differentiation and identity-building for Ahvaz's tourism brand, providing new opportunities to attract tourists with cultural and artistic motivations. Accordingly, the main objective of the current research is to investigate the role of creative tourism in enhancing the indicators of urban sustainability in Ahvaz city. The statistical population of the study, using Cochran's formula, resulted in a sample size of 384 individuals who were selected and studied. Data analysis was conducted using correlation analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via SPSS and Smart PLS software. The research findings indicate that creative tourism plays a key and positive role in enhancing urban branding indicators. Specifically, the measurement model was confirmed at a highly favorable level in terms of internal consistency (reliability) and convergent validity, but discriminant validity was rejected due to severe cross-correlation between the dimensions of creative tourism and urban branding. However, the SRMR = 0.029 index showed a very strong overall fit of the structural model with the empirical data. Only two infrastructural indicators in the competitive advantage dimension of the brand showed weak factor loadings. Ultimately, the results suggest that while the model is technically strong, there is significant conceptual overlap between the main variables.