Dubai Shopping Festival

Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) started on February 15, 1996 as a retail event intended to revitalise retail trade in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It has since been promoted as a tourist attraction. This yearly month long event is usually scheduled during the first quarter of the year, attracting about 3 million people to Dubai.^[1]

It is the region’s largest and longest running shopping and entertainment extravaganza. DSF has had around 35 million visitors since 1996, who have spent close to Dh74 billion in shopping malls, airlines, hotels and entertainment outlets. In 2009 alone, visitors reached the 3.35 million mark and spent Dh9.8 billion in 32 days of the festival.

During Dubai Shopping Festival, shops offer deep discounts on their merchandise, daily car raffles are drawn, and fireworks light Dubai’s night sky. Tourists from all around the world are lured not only for Dubai's tax free shopping, but also for all of the events that take place during the festival. In 2006, the festival was cancelled due to the death of Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. In addition to Dubai Shopping Festival, Dubai also hosts Dubai Summer Surprises.

Dubai is sometimes called the 'city of gold'.^[2] The city of gold concept was coined during one of the Dubai Shopping Festival awareness campaigns, In 1996, Dubai invited everyone from all around the world to a global annual festival which came to be named as the milestone "Dubai Shopping Festival" or DSF, they came up with the novel idea of a global village, a shopping village was conceived with all nations participating with their wares and styles in their traditional or cultural ways, the immigrant ex pat population and the fly in visitors rejoiced in the celebration that took place and the promise was given that from then on every year Dubai will host a festival for people from all around the world. The years that followed brought in more visitors more exhibitors and now the stage was set to build on the reputation of hospitality.

Dubai shopping festival was segregated into many major attractions all with one purpose, to have as many ways of entertaining the guests to the city, and catering to each and every individual segment's visiting from around the world, the loyalty of the local expatriate populations definitely finds a reason to become even more attached to the city that brings to them their own culture every year.

Dubai Shopping Festival plays a vital role in Dubai's tourism industry. Apart from the direct impact it has on the tourism industry, Dubai Shopping Festival also contributes its share of importance into the nervous system of the emirate. With the rise of the number of visitors to Dubai for Dubai Shopping Festival, lots of potential immigrant talent and investment get to experience the luxury of Dubai.

See also

• UAE Awafi Festival

References

1. ^ The Dubai Shopping Festival
2. ^ www.MyDSF.com - City of Gold `JN20090209`

External links

• Official website