zuhahmed
January 13th, 2005, 06:32 AM
Flashing the cash at the Dubai Shopping Festival
By Ramsay Short
Daily Star staff
Thursday, January 13, 2005
DUBAI: January in the United Arab Emirates means only one thing: the Dubai Shopping Festival or DSF. Which in fact translates into another thing - money, and lots of it.
Over the next month, starting today this flourishing city-state made up of 183 nationalities will celebrate consumerism in all its glory and throw in some entertainment too. In Dubai if you want something you can get it. You want the latest fashion labels from Italy - you can get it. You want the latest digital camera or MP3 player - you can get it. You want gold - you can get it. You want fast cars and rich living - you can get it. Dubai, during the shopping festival, is really something to be behold.
The city is doled up in ribbons and bright colors, like a gaudy bride, and everywhere you look people are enticing you to spend your cash. Launched in 1996 as a retail event aiming at generating revenue for the city that was not from oil, as well as promoting it as trade hub and tourist destination, the DSF now in its tenth year has succeeded in doing that and more. Though primarily about materialism - shopping is really about that very European pursuit of self-pleasure and there are numerous lotteries for Lexus luxury cars and bars of gold - this year the DSF has decided to push much more its programs of entertainment (from its jazz festival to its animation film festival) as well as its theme of 'One World, One Family, One Festival,' with its global village featuring tents celebrating the culture of over 40 nations. According to statistics provided by the DSF organizing committee, in 1996 money spent during the festival totaled 2.15 billion Dirhams ($585.4 million) with 1.6 million visitors to the city. In 1997 the revenue amounted to 2.79 billion Dirhams. In 2002 the total number of shoppers or visitors reached 2.68 million people.
Last year 3.1 million people visited Dubai for the shopping festival spending the huge amount of $1.58 billion. This year all indicators are that this huge success will continue.
What is clear is that Dubai and its shopping festival is doing something right. People from around the globe want to come here. For better or for worse, they want to shop. And on top of that and perhaps more importantly investors and international companies want to come here too. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed al-Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Group and Chairman of the DSF Supreme Committee told me. "The DSF is a powerful device in implementing the future vision of the emirate? going hand in hand with Dubai's strategic target of transferring the emirate into an international tourism destination which is set to attract 15 million tourists by the year 2010." For a city born from the desert barely more than 30 years ago on the profits of oil, that would be no small feat. The month-long DSF started yesterday and runs until Feb. 12.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=11796
By Ramsay Short
Daily Star staff
Thursday, January 13, 2005
DUBAI: January in the United Arab Emirates means only one thing: the Dubai Shopping Festival or DSF. Which in fact translates into another thing - money, and lots of it.
Over the next month, starting today this flourishing city-state made up of 183 nationalities will celebrate consumerism in all its glory and throw in some entertainment too. In Dubai if you want something you can get it. You want the latest fashion labels from Italy - you can get it. You want the latest digital camera or MP3 player - you can get it. You want gold - you can get it. You want fast cars and rich living - you can get it. Dubai, during the shopping festival, is really something to be behold.
The city is doled up in ribbons and bright colors, like a gaudy bride, and everywhere you look people are enticing you to spend your cash. Launched in 1996 as a retail event aiming at generating revenue for the city that was not from oil, as well as promoting it as trade hub and tourist destination, the DSF now in its tenth year has succeeded in doing that and more. Though primarily about materialism - shopping is really about that very European pursuit of self-pleasure and there are numerous lotteries for Lexus luxury cars and bars of gold - this year the DSF has decided to push much more its programs of entertainment (from its jazz festival to its animation film festival) as well as its theme of 'One World, One Family, One Festival,' with its global village featuring tents celebrating the culture of over 40 nations. According to statistics provided by the DSF organizing committee, in 1996 money spent during the festival totaled 2.15 billion Dirhams ($585.4 million) with 1.6 million visitors to the city. In 1997 the revenue amounted to 2.79 billion Dirhams. In 2002 the total number of shoppers or visitors reached 2.68 million people.
Last year 3.1 million people visited Dubai for the shopping festival spending the huge amount of $1.58 billion. This year all indicators are that this huge success will continue.
What is clear is that Dubai and its shopping festival is doing something right. People from around the globe want to come here. For better or for worse, they want to shop. And on top of that and perhaps more importantly investors and international companies want to come here too. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed al-Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Group and Chairman of the DSF Supreme Committee told me. "The DSF is a powerful device in implementing the future vision of the emirate? going hand in hand with Dubai's strategic target of transferring the emirate into an international tourism destination which is set to attract 15 million tourists by the year 2010." For a city born from the desert barely more than 30 years ago on the profits of oil, that would be no small feat. The month-long DSF started yesterday and runs until Feb. 12.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=11796