Dubai is upping its efforts to lure tourists with retail-related events by planning a total of 247 days of activities next year
Dubai is stepping up its efforts to lure tourists with retail-related events by planning a total of 247 days of activities next year.
The Department of Economic Development (DED) and Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE) has jointly announced the 2019 Retail Calendar which aims to increase resident and tourist consumer spend on shopping throughout 2019.
The calendar showcases 18 events over 247 days, versus 12 events over 178 days in 2018, a statement said.
The 2019 Retail Calendar has been developed with significant input from 18 major retail and mall groups in Dubai, and seeks to enable growth in the AED128.5 billion sector that is projected to increase to AED160.7 billion by 2021.
The 2019 initiative, now in its third year of operations, has become a key pillar in Dubai’s destination offering.
Sami Al Qamzi, director general, DED, said: “The retail sector is a key contributor to Dubai’s thriving economy and makes up a considerable volume of the emirate’s GDP. We are committed to consolidating efforts across Dubai to offer exceptional and high quality experiences in terms of infrastructure, initiatives and incentives in collaboration with the public and private sector, to continue to boost the retail industry.
“Combining retail with events and promotions has allowed us to streamline various activations across the year, to accelerate the success of Dubai’s retail model, whilst allowing us to collectively focus on increasing the GDP contribution of the sector to Dubai.”
Helal Almarri, director general of Dubai Tourism, added: “The retail sector is a high priority for Dubai Tourism - in addition to increasing the number of international visitors to the emirate, we are also focused on significantly enhancing the economic value created to our GDP.
"The strategic revisions made to the 2019 Retail Calendar mark a significant investment from Dubai Tourism to further enhance the wider domestic economy, and represent our continued commitment to making Dubai a leading retail destination and increasing overall spend per visitor.”
The 2019 edition is set to launch on December 26 2018, the opening day of the Dubai Shopping Festival which this year has been extended for a further full week based on feedback from retailers.
Also included in the 2019 Retail Calendar will be Russian Holidays, Dubai Shopping Festival Final Sale, Chinese New Year, Dubai Food Festival, Spring/Summer ‘19 Collection Launch, Home Festival, Ramadan in Dubai, Eid in Dubai (x2), Dubai Summer Surprises, Dubai Summer Surprises Final Sale, Back to School Season, Fall/Winter ‘19 Collection Launch, Diwali, Dubai Fitness Challenge, 3-Day Super Sale (x2) and Gifting Weekend.
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