Dubai Duty Free said yesterday that it earned revenue of Dh6.65 billion during last year – an increase of 11.4 per cent compared to the previous year, when the company earned Dh5.90bn.
It broke its own record for monthly sales in December with revenues of Dh700 million, up from Dh619m, the previous monthly sales record.
Perfumes remained the best selling item, accounting for 16 per cent of duty free sales – or Dh1.06bn.
Travellers demonstrated a keenness for gold purchases, by spending Dh613m during the past year. That’s 5 per cent more gold than last year. More than 11 million cigars were sold in the nine months to September, while watches recorded a 16 per cent gain in sales, as consumers spent Dh459m on new timepieces.
Customers made a total 71,000 purchases a day, on average.
Dubai Duty Free employs approximately 6,000 people, and last year opened a hotel, the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel, near Dubai International Airport. It operates around 20,000 square feet of retail space.
Dubai International Airport aims to host 90 million passengers annually by 2018, meaning that Dubai Duty Free can expect further revenue growth as tourist numbers increase.
For 2013, a total of 65.4 million passengers were forecasted to have travelled through the airport.
While European and American airports have faced capacity constraints, Dubai International is one of the world’s fastest growing airports. Its passenger traffic expanded by 101 per cent between the first half of 2007 and the first half of 2013, according to Airport Council International.
“We are thrilled to announce such a positive year in 2013, which marked our 30th anniversary,” said Colm McLoughlin, Dubai Duty Free’s executive vice chairman.
“The operation went from strength to strength with the opening of Concourse A in Terminal 3 in January and Al Maktoum International in October, with overall sales soaring to a new high.”
abouyamourn@thenational.ae
