Retailers run hot and cold on Dubai Shopping Festival

The Dubai Shopping Festival created mixed fortunes for retailers this year, having been forecast to provide a huge financial fillip to stores across the emirate.

Electronics and gadgets sold well during the Dubai Shopping Festival, which ends today. Pawan Singh / The National

The Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) created mixed fortunes for retailers this year, having been forecast to provide a huge financial fillip to stores across the emirate.

A steady flow of free-spending tourists helped buoy electronics retailers at the annual shopping event, but other stores reported financial and shopping fatigue among customers as the DSF followed a busy festive period.

"Bringing it forward did not really help," said Vipen Sethi, the chief executive of Landmark Group, one of the biggest retailers in the Middle East, representing local brands such as Centrepoint, Home Centre, Shoe Mart, Emax and Candelite, as well as Oasis Mall.

"Saying that, there are a lot of people experiencing the festival because they were here on holiday, but it did not convert to numbers."

The start of festival, which finishes today, was moved forward from January 20 last year to January 5 this year, beginning just after the New Year, festive and Eid periods.

Mr Sethi said Landmark had enjoyed a slight increase in sales, but nothing "exceptional".

"The festival came a little bit early," he said. "It was quite busy in the tourism sense, so people bought and that helped."

Mohi Din BinHendi, the president of BinHendi Enterprises, a luxury and food and beverage conglomerate, said the DSF was beneficial for Dubai as it attracted visitors from all over the Gulf.

"Everything you do cannot benefit everybody, but if it benefits Dubai, it benefits me," he said.

Total additional retail, travel and hospitality spending in the Dubai economy as a result of the DSF was forecast this year to eclipse last year's figure of Dh15.1 billion (US$4.11bn), according to the Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment.

Electronics and gadgets retailers said they had experienced a strong DSF as the combination of product launches and tourists boosted sales.

"We are in an industry where the products keep coming in," said Ashish Panjabi, the chief operating officer for Jacky's Electronics. "Certain products have done extremely well, the iPhone 4S, the BlackBerry Porsche and the Sony Tablet. These are products that came in just before DSF."

Amit Malani, the president of Harman Middle East, said the DSF had been "fantastic" and reported a 30 per cent increase in sales this year compared with last year's event.

"We had a pretty good DSF," Mr Malani said. "At the beginning of the festival there were a lot of Russians in town and people buying."

He said sales of portable products, such as tablets and smartphones, had been strong because tourists could take them home.

Hoteliers echoed Mr Malani's comments about the month-long festival. "DSF was really great," said Wael El Behi, the executive assistant manager of the Ramada Downtown Dubai. "The whole month of January was excellent; not only for us but for the whole destination."

The hotel achieved an average occupancy of 94 per cent last month, with revenues up about 65 per cent compared with January last year, he said. School holidays in Saudi Arabia at the end of the month helped to bring in more business from the kingdom, he said.

Many tourists from the traditional source markets of Russia and Germany have visited Dubai over the past few weeks, while there was an increase in guests from South America, including Argentina, at the Ramada, Mr El Behi noted.

"They're coming for the shopping, as well as the weather conditions," he said. "Plus we have to admit the fact that the instability in [some] other Arab countries [positively] impacted the business here. Rates were higher than last year."

Kempinski Hotel Mall of the Emirates, which is connected to the mall, said business was strong during the festival.

"This is a key period for our property and this year was even better than the last," Kempinski said. "Not only did we see an increase on occupancy over last year, but we also achieved an increase of 20 per cent on our average rate compared to the same period in 2011."

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