Dubai: The 20th Dubai Shopping Festival has commenced with the start of the new year drawing visitors from around the world to join in the celebrations.
On New Year’s eve at the Meydan Hotel celebrations, Giuliana Rancic counted down the few seconds left in 2014 as the new year approached and wished everyone attending a happy 20th DSF edition. The New Year’s eve celebrations served as the kick-start to the month-long festival of shopping.
On Thursday evening at Zabeel Park, world-class orchestra Welsh National Opera performed the first among the multitude of DSF events. It was a family-friendly free-of-charge event.
Laila Mohammad, CEO Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishments, told Gulf News that DSF has grown into the longest-running festival of its kind in the world with the help of the government and sponsors who have unflinchingly supported it through the years.
Laila emphasized on the growth by highlighting the fact that when the festival first started there were only around five malls and a couple of retailers. Currently, there are 70 malls and 6,000 retailers that have helped make this festival recognizable worldwide.
“Everyone has a hand in reaching this milestone,” she said. “And we are now celebrating with all our partners by creating the festive mood through decorations across the city in order to create the best edition.”
Over the years, visitors have flown in to participate in the festivities and indulge in the shopping sprees with the help of sales available in many retails stores. Laila shared that statistics show that during the 20 years of DSF, around 57 million visitors have participated in the DSF festivities and spent Dh145 billion in the span of those two decades.
Mohammad noted that the term visitors used when mentioning the statistics refers to anyone taking part in DSF and does not refer solely to people coming from abroad.
“In the past four or five years we have received 4.5 million visitors on average who spent around Dh14-15 billion which means a billion dirhams a week and by visitors we refer to people locally and internationally who have participated in the festival one way or the other,” she explained. “From those 4.5 million visitors, 25-30 per cent are international visitors and the rest are residents.”
Research presented by Mohammad has shown that more than 50 per cent of shoppers defer their purchase until DSF.
But there is a lot more to DSF that makes it unique.
Maria Botros is a trainee at Gulf News
