Dubai Duty Free’s total sales on its 39th anniversary surpassed AED107.3 million ($29.4 million) in the course of three days— December 18-20.
The 72-hour anniversary sale, which was also applied to its home delivery customers and click & collect offers, turned into a spending spree at Dubai International and Al Maktoum International airports, recording 23 per cent more revenues than the same period last year.
Executive vice chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free, Colm McLoughlin, said: “We are very happy to have achieved such great sales over the 3-day anniversary and that so many travellers had the opportunity to avail of the special discount that we offer.
“I would like to thank everyone for helping us achieve such sales, in particular, our customers and our staff who did a great job in serving the high number of passengers.”
Category-wise, perfumes became the bestseller with sales of AED26.5 million ($7.3 million), followed by liquor sales, totalling AED15.1 million ($4.1 million) and watches with sales amounting to AED10.2 million ($2.8 million). Cosmetics took the fourth place with sales reaching AED7.5 million ($2 million).
The airport retailer has posted staggering profits while general footfall in Dubai International Airport has yet to return to pre-lockdown levels. This indicates that shoppers make up for lost time and remain resistant to the current adverse macroeconomic conditions- an observation indicative of ‘revenge tourism’.
A recent report from the World Travel & Tourism Council at the start of this month confirmed visitor spending in Dubai this year has been almost double that of London, coming in at $29.4 billion and $16.1 billion respectively.
Over the three-day anniversary celebration, the cash registers recorded a total of 205,956 sales transactions with 67,837 transactions alone on December 20.
In the meantime, online sales during the same period reached AED7.9 million ($2.2 million) with a total of 6,122 combined orders received through click & collect and home delivery service.
“There is a change in spend. We had an average spend in 2018 and 2019 of about US$38 per person. During the pandemic – because people hadn’t travelled – that went up to $50. And now it’s permanently at about $46 or $47 per person. It has been very good,” said Mr McLoughlin.
Four weeks ago, Dubai Duty Free was named the ‘World’s Leading Airport Duty Free Operator 2022’ by the World Travel Awards.
