Dubai: More than 6,000 retail outlets and 50 shopping malls will offer sales and discounted prices of up to 75 per cent on a wide range of goods and services during the forthcoming edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival.

The festival will take place from January 20 to February 20, a government official said.

A spokesman for the Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment (DEPE) — organisers of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) — said the organisation would launch a promotional road show from January 6 for the 16th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival 2011.

This will be held from January 20 to February 20.

"We usually conduct an in-depth analysis and study of our largest tourist arrival destinations and markets to meet their requirements and aspirations before we start any regional or global promotional road shows for Dubai Shopping Festival, Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) or Eid in Dubai," Ebrahim Saleh, Festivals Coordinator General and Deputy CEO of Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment, said.

He stressed that these markets were selected to promote DSF 2011 as they constituted Dubai's largest tourist arrival markets.

Regional

The regional promotional roadshow starts with Saudi Arabia and ends with India on January 6.

It will also include visits to Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Egypt.

Emirates airline is taking part in the road shows, promoting various travel and tour packages for the 32-day extravaganza, Saleh said.

"We plan to communicate the mixture of activities, promotions, shopping and events that will be on offer in DSF 2011 to the media, travel agencies and tour operators in these countries in an effort to attract more visitors to Dubai," Saleh said.

He added that the Dubai Shopping Festival has played a major role in reviving and boosting the tourism and retail industries in Dubai.

Dubai's signature annual event has attracted more than 40 million visitors of numerous nationalities and generated consumer spending of more than Dh84 billion since it began in 1996.

Increase in visitors

The latest statistics from the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) in Dubai show a 20 per cent increase in the number of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) visitors staying at Dubai hotels during the first six months of 2010.

This was compared to the same period in 2009.

Also, figures of visitors from Egypt were up by five per cent and by 26 per cent from India during the same period.

The number of hotels and hotel apartments increased by seven per cent to 566 from January to June 2010, compared with 530 in the same period in 2009.

DSF road show

- Tour to cover seven major markets covering GCC countries, Egypt and India.

- Number of GCC tourists to Dubai increases by 20 per cent, while the number of Indian tourists is up by 26 per cent.

— Staff Report