Dubai Shopping Festival 2012 Attracting Record Numbers
Dubai’s hotel sector has been boosted by the Arab Spring, renewed
corporate activity and record numbers of visitors to the Dubai Shopping
Festival. The thriving Dubai hotel sector will receive a further boost
from this year’s 17th Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), which is expected to
attract record numbers of visitors.
Dubai, Dubai, UAE, February 04, 2012 -- Dubai’s hotel sector has been
boosted by the Arab Spring, renewed corporate activity and record numbers
of visitors to the Dubai Shopping Festival. The thriving Dubai hotel
sector will receive a further boost from this year’s 17th Dubai Shopping
Festival (DSF), which is expected to attract record numbers of visitors.
Last year, around 3.5 million tourists flocked to Dubai for the festival,
which generated $4.08 billion in revenue for the city. But a study by
You.Gov predicts this year could be considerably bigger. The DSF, which
runs for 32 days from January 20, 2011 to February 20, 2011 has been
organised to coincide with school holidays, which will increase the
number of families at the event.
Special offers for the Festival
One of the biggest beneficiaries will be the Dubai hotel sector. Hotels,
travel agents and tour operators sell the DSF worldwide and run at peak
levels during the event. Most Dubai hotels and apartments, including the
world-famous Burj Al Arab, provide special offers on rooms during the
festival. Emirates, and most other airlines flying out of Dubai, offer
discounted airfares and excess baggage allowances during the festival.
Emirates, for example, is offering a US$75 DSF hotel package.
The DSF, known in Arabic as ‘Layali Dubai’, was started in February 1996
by the Dubai Government as a retail event aimed at promoting trade. Since
then it has become an annual shopping, entertainment, and cultural
extravaganza that draws an international audience. It is basically a
shoppers’ paradise. Over 2,300 retails outlets offer everything from gold
and perfume, to haute couture, cars, electronics, handicrafts and
textiles.
But over the years, other events have sprung up to take advantage of the
thousands of visitors. There are now international fashion shows, street-
side performances, nightly fireworks, film festivals, and many other
cultural events that reflect the emirate’s cosmopolitan character. The
world’s richest horse race, the US$ 12 million Dubai World Cup, also
coincides with the shopping festival.
First Central Hotel Apartment’s
If last year is anything to go by, hotel occupancy rates will soar during
the DSF. In 2011, many hotels in the emirate reached 100% occupancy.
Hotels which are well-situated for the festival will be especially in
demand. One example is the Dubai-based British property developer The
First Group’s First Central Hotel Apartments, which are right by the
Dubai Metro’s Tecom station, and offer the height of luxury to tired
shopaholics. The apartments are just a few minutes away from the Mall of
the Emirates and a short ride from the Dubai Mall.
In fact, Dubai’s hoteliers have already reported occupancy levels up this
January compared with January 2011. The rising trade has certainly been
helped by the Arab Spring diverting tourists to the emirate, as their
fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries find Dubai to be a
natural substitute for places like Egypt and Morocco. But there are other
factors which have helped hotel business, including consistently good
weather and the general improvement in corporate activity in recent
months. The emirate's relative affordability compared with its pre-crisis
peaks has also played a role. As has its increasing appeal to markets
such as China, India and eastern European tourists.
Rises in 2011
The positive news in the early stages of 2012 continues trends in the
Dubai hotel industry in 2011. STR Global reported that visitor levels had
risen beyond eight million by the end of last year. Also, the revenue per
available room, or RevPAR, recorded an average rise of 8-9% in 2011.
During the month of October, Dubai’s hotels posted a 13.5% increase in
RevPAR to $194.05, second only to Jeddah in the Middle East and Africa
region (MENA).The majority of hotels in Dubai also recorded occupancy
levels as high as 85% for the month of October. Clearly, events such as
the DSF will build on these impressive figures.
Dubai is now the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world,
worth about $7.8 billion in 2011. And the UAE has the largest number of
hotel rooms, with a total of 40,176 available, or being built. The
nearest contender in the MENA region was Saudi Arabia with 5,531 rooms.
The increasing activity in the hotel sector is making property developers
confident about their new investments. After years of insecurity, the
market looks back on track with 2012 set to be another year of growth.
New developments, such as The First Group’s Tecom hotel apartments, Metro
Central and Grand Central, will add to the city’s diverse hotel supply.
Other Dubai developers have made bullish assertions about the market.
Seven Tides, for example, claims it will be looking for new opportunities
as the market improves. Seven Tides believes that interest in Dubai
properties is rising back to pre-crisis levels and that there is
particular interest in the Palm. This means mixed-use developments are
becoming sought after once again. Seven Tides expects to open its Royal
Amwaj resort on the Palm Jumeirah, and its Oceana hotel, also on the
island, in the first quarter of next year. Other developers have been
inspired by the upturn to restart work on projects which had been put on
hold. For example, Al Habtoor is restarting work on its US$272.2 million
hotel on the Palm.
Strong economic performance
The renewed vigour in the UAE’s hotel and tourism industries is reflected
by the stronger performance of the UAE economy on international indexes.
For instance, in the 2011 Human Development Report, an annual survey put
out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UAE was
ranked number 30 worldwide among 187 nations. Countries ranking depends
on their performance on three variable of the human development index
(HDI) - life expectancy at birth, education and income.
The ranking of 30th was ahead of all Arab countries and many European
countries. The second-placed Arab country was Qatar, which came 37th. The
UAE economy also had a great year in 2011. According to a report by
Standard Chartered Bank, the UAE enjoyed economic growth of 3.8%,
allowing for inflation. The reasons cited for the growth were steady oil
prices, strengthened oil production and the spillover effects of the Arab
Spring. Inflation is also a non-existent threat, standing at around 1.6
per cent in 2011 and predicted to rise slightly to 2 per cent in 2012.
The First Group is an award winning international property developer,
specialising in emerging markets and is currently pioneering iconic
projects in the UAE and Africa. The group has a proud history of over 20
years' experience and success, and continues to produce and develop
bespoke property investments in some of the world's most desirable
locations.
For more information, please contact: Cain Masters, Citrus Designs,
cain@citrus-designs.info.
Contact:
Cain Masters
Citrus Designs
1 Main Street
Malaga, Spain 29649
670739291
stuart@citrus-designs.info
http://www.citrus-designs.info