Dubai: Retail spending during the month-long Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) could cross Dh7.67 billion about 7 per cent of Dubai's Dh110 billion GDP, a top government official said.
About 25 sponsors have contributed up to Dh25 million in sponsorship fees to the Dh85 million budget earmarked for the 11th edition of the DSF the region's largest retail promotion that takes place from today until February 4.
"We expect this DSF to record between 5 and 10 per cent growth in the number of visitors," Saeed Al Nabouda, DSF chief executive told Gulf News yesterday.
"With a 15 per cent increase in visitor spending up from last year's Dh6.67 billion, we expect a strong show." Total visitor spending is expected to exceed Dh7.67 billion by the end of the festival.
"This translates to about 6 to 7 per cent of Dubai's GDP," he said.
The last DSF recorded 3.3 million visitors who spent Dh6.67 billion during the 32-day long festivities that translates to Dh2,021.21 average spending per visitor.
In 2004, the tourism industry recorded 37 per cent growth in revenue from 5.42 million hotel guests, reaching Dh6.2 billion last year.
Visitor spending during the next DSF overshadowed Dubai's tourism sector's revenue for the entire 2004.
"We have had a great response during the recent roadshow from travel and tourism partners across the GCC.
"Emirates and the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing are playing a great role in promoting the event globally and we expect another record turnout during the 32-day extravaganza," he said.
More than 2,000 outlets out of Dubai's 74,000 business organisations will participate in the city-wide sale, offering good value for money to shoppers.
"We are offering a total of Dh100 million in prize money, both in cash and prizes through various raffle draws," said Al Nabouda, the third CEO of the 10-year old DSF.
"This year, our focus is to have more people win more prizes rather than few people winning a lot. So, we have spread out the prizes in such way that more people will win prizes."
"During the DSF some brands and products record between 25 to 50 per cent higher sales than our monthly average which is a big jump," said Arvind Nair, chief operating officer of Jumbo Electronics.
