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Are you excited about the Dubai Shopping Festival?
The results are in.
February 7, 2010 1:30 by Aarti Nagraj
The Dubai Shopping festival (DSF) has been one of the emirate’s biggest claims to fame since the event launched in 1996. While the sudden real estate boom might have pulled in investors in the last few years, tax -free shopping has always been Dubai’s main crowd-puller.
According to the Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment (DEPE), the organizer of the event, 3.35 million visitors attended the festival in 2009, an increase of 4.6 percent compared to 2008. The visitors spent around AED9.8 billion, around 2 percent less than they spent in 2008.
The decrease in spending was because of the steep discounts offered by retailers and tighter consumer budgets consumers, said Laila Suhail, the CEO of DEPE.
The organizers are certainly hoping that this year’s event, which runs from January 28 to February 28, will be able to pull in larger crowds and have them shell out more cash. Prizes will be key in attracting shoppers to the 6,000 retail outlets and 40 malls that participate in DSF: According to reports, 80 cars and AED3 million in cash are being given away in raffle draws this year.
Emirates Airline has offered tourist visas for those flying in during the event, and the airline’s officials in Kerala, India, said that they expect bookings to increase between 12 to 15 percent during the DSF period as compared to last year.
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1 Comment
it’s boring, tiring, and same events people are encouraged to spend but it’s up to the people to think so many times before spending their money because sales and discounts are temptations. in riyadh ksa when they say it is SALE there you can see the actual old tag price reduced to a new price discounted. here it’s different they will increase the price and they will give the same old price that they have and the tag price oh my my it’s new and clean meaning they have just removed the old one’s and changed it to a higher price and the same tag price they will put, many shops, malls, are doing this in dubai go and check it out, they will close for one day and they will say it is inventory stock day, but mind you they are changing the tag prices in preparation for the DSF make the price higher and deduct the discount to arrive to the same old price.