Dubai Shopping Festival – Shoppers Delight

This is one festival that truly promotes the concept of ‘one world, one family’. Over the years Dubai, far from being a desert, has evolved as a destination much sought after by people from all walks of life. It has attracted the shoppers as well as the likes of Maria Sharapova and Tiger Woods. Also an integral part of Dubai is the horse racing that draws the best in the world on the turf and in the stands.

Dubai - admired by the who’s who of the world has come to be called the 'city of gold'. The ‘city of gold’ concept was coined during one of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) awareness campaigns since its beginning in 1996. What was conceived by the Dubai government as purely a retail event aimed to promote trade in Dubai has since become an annual shopping, entertainment, and cultural extravaganza that continues to promote tourism in Dubai and draws people from around the world each year.

Shopper’s Paradise: Dubai is known around the world as such a paradise throughout the year, but they really lay out the red carpet during shopping festival month, with over 2,300 retails outlets participating, that put on offer everything imaginable from gold, perfume, haute couture, cars and electronics to handicrafts and textiles. The increasing spending figures are not surprising because, without import duties, Dubai is home to the largest collection of international consumer durables in the region.

Goods such as electronics, garments, and jewellery have long been in demand and during DSF, promotions and discounts make it possible for shoppers to buy branded products at extremely competitive prices.

Local and multinational brands acknowledged their faith in the event, and brands like Visa, Pepsi and Emirates Airlines became partners to DSF's growth. The annual shopping event is expected to attract over 2 million visitors who will be flocking to the tiny but commercially vibrant emirate to avail of some great shopping bargains and enjoy the unique attractions of one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the world.

Global village: One of the biggest beneficiaries of the event is the tourism sector. Hotels, travel agents and tour operators contribute to the selling of the event worldwide and it would be fair to assume, run at the peak levels of operation during the event. Most hotels and apartments also get involved offering special offers during the period, even the world famous Burj Al Arab is included in the hotels. With all these special discounts available many would feel that would suffice, but Dubai goes quite a few steps further. They are scores of raffles that offer very attractive prices outlined below, and Emirates and most other airlines flying out of Dubai offer discounted airfares and much needed excess baggage allowances during the festival.

Entertainment: Along with all of the shopping outlets, the Dubai Shopping Festival offers a variety of entertainment events, many of which are hosted at the various Dubai public parks. The most popular of these entertainment events include the nightly fireworks, laser/light shows, fashion shows, and music concerts. Some of the most famous Arabic entertainers come and perform during the festival, including Kazim Al Sahir, Nawal Al Zugby, Amr Diab, Milhim Barakat, Asala, Fadl Shaker, Najwa Karam, and Diana Haddad. There are other events as well, including international fashion shows, children's events, streetside performances, nightly fireworks, film festivals, and many other cultural events that reflect the emirate's cosmopolitan character. Plus one of the biggest events of them all, the Dubai World Cup also takes place during the festival.

Every year, Dubai Shopping Festival lives up to its promise of staging the most exciting activities for the whole family inspired by the theme One World, One Family, One Festival. Dubai Shopping Festival also contributes its share of importance into the nervous system of the emirate. With the rise of the number of visitors to Dubai for Dubai Shopping Festival, lots of potential immigrant talent and investment get to experience the luxury of Dubai.

Dubai, in fact, has many other charms apart from the shopping attractions. It is the world's first purpose-built sports city and will incorporate state-of-the-art sporting venues and academies along with residential and commercial developments. These will combine to offer a world class venue for sports events and activities at all levels

Dubai is also the pioneer of golf in the Middle East with championship standard grass courses to challenge the skills of even the most experienced players. It boasts a wide range of world class golf courses, featuring excellent facilities.

The world's richest horse race event also held here annually since 1996 at the Nad Al Sheba Racecourse, 10 minutes away from the city centre of Dubai.

The Dubai Open Tennis Championship regularly always attracted top stars such as Venus and Serena Williams, Anna Kournikova, Roger Federer and Jennifer Capriati in the past. There are a number of tennis clubs that are open to the public.

A traditional sport is extremely popular in the Emirates. It was originally staged in an informal setting, at weddings or special festivals, culminating in the annual camel race festival at Al Wathba which attracts entrants from all over the world.

Dubai is a centre for water sports par excellence, and is the perfect spot for any activity, from scuba diving to game fishing and other water games like Snorkeling and scuba diving, Yachting, Water-skiing etc.