Dubai shopping festival - an entertainment of sorts

By G. Ananthakrishnan

CHENNAI, FEB. 18. The Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) is getting bigger each year, and for 2001, it has given luxury carmaker Rolls Royce, its single biggest order, for 31 plush motors that will be given away to winners in an equal number of daily lottery draws.

The DSF, which has positioned itself for the current year on the theme ``One world, one family, one festival'' puts the Indian visitors at 45 per cent of the total annually. India continues to be perhaps the biggest single market for the combination of budget priced authentic products, quality gold ornaments, entertainment and live events. During 2001, the Festival will go on from March 1 to 31.

This year, the DSF has tied up with the credit card major Visa and Emirates Airlines to offer entry visas to Indian travellers who can use the card to book and pay for tickets, Mr. Hussain Ali Lootah, Chief Executive Officer of the festival, told visiting Indian journalists in Dubai. This makes ticketing, visas and travel easy for the visitor.

The Dubai festival would be envy of any destination hoping to tot up impressive figures of tourist arrivals, and for the boost it gives to the local economy. In 2000, it topped its five years of existence with 25 lakh visitors and $1.3 billion worth of sales.

If the array of prizes ranging from automobiles - Lexus cars and four by four vehicles - to school scholarships of $36,000 and one kg of gold every day for 31 days does not attract the visitor, the festival has lined up entertainment such as golf (Dubai Desert Classic with Tiger Woods scheduled to participate), the Dubai World Cup (at $15 million, the world's richest horse race, the organisers say), Dubai Tennis Open, and entertainment by artists from around the world, including Lebanon, Iran and Bollywood, Mr. Lootah says. Converting the streets of the West Asian trade hub into themed arenas for children and fun seekers is part of the festival attractions.

Preparing for the massive influx of tourists, Dubai has built up capacity of 36,000 rooms and an airport that is equipped to handle 22 million passengers annually. The airport has drawn up an expansion plan in the second phase, that can handle an additional 20 million passengers. In 2001, the Dubai International Airport expects to handle 14 million passengers.

Though a year-round shopping and tourism destination, Dubai kick- starts its annual sales targets with the Shopping Festival. This year, it hopes to have an incremental sales growth of about seven per cent over 2000. The enterprise spends about 65 million Dirhams (approx Rs. 78 crores) in marketing, promotions, advertising and events, but makes enough profits to run a spin- off venture, the ``Dubai Summer Surprise'' in June-August.

An online version of the Dubai Shopping Festival (www.mydsf.com) has also been launched, with its own version of raffles and prizes.

Its expertise in running such a sale-cum-entertainment extravaganza has won it the attention of the Maharashtra Government, which has sought expertise from the DSF to have a similar event in Mumbai.

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Section  : Business
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