Business | General
Retailers pledge support for DSF
Leading retail industry entities and experts have pledged their support for the 14th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival 2009 that will run from January 15 to February 15.
- Staff Report
- Published: 23:32 December 27, 2008
Dubai: Leading retail industry entities and experts have pledged their support for the 14th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival 2009 that will run from January 15 to February 15.
Under the initiative of the DSF Office, a meeting of several leading retailers, DSF Office officials and representatives of several government departments and the tourism and hospitality sectors was organised last Wednesday at the Department of Economic Development.
The meeting chaired by Laila Suhail, chief executive of the DSF Office, was attended by representatives of leading business houses.
Mohammad Khamis Bin Hareb, DTCM's executive director of operations and marketing, was among those who spoke at the meeting in addition to Tawhid Abdullah, managing director of the Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group, and Eisa Adam, board member of the Dubai Shopping Malls Group.
Various issues such as the scope of the retail industry in the current econ-omic downturn were discussed with a majority of retailers expressing the viewpoint that the coming DSF would enable them to take shopping promotions to the next level.
A special retail report was also presented by Piyush Mathur, regional managing director for MENA and Pakistan at The Nielsen Company, at the gathering.
"Our calling for this meeting comes in line with the DSF Office's efforts to align the endeavours of our various stakeholders to come up with some of the most exciting promotions organised in a DSF edition.
"In the wake of the global slowdown, this gathering was essential to plan ways to contribute to enhancing Dubai's economy. We are confident that the promotions designed by hotels and retailers, in addition to the raffle prizes worth millions, will play a para-mount role in increasing retail footfall," said Laila Suhail.
Bin Hareb said the DTCM would launch an aggressive marketing campaign to coincide with the beginning of DSF 2009. The campaign will target various markets.
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