Dubai Duty Free 2023 sales hits best ever tally of Dh7.88b - and December was the best month

Dubai: All those passengers flying into and out of Dubai International in 2023 is showing up loud and clear on the Dubai Duty Free Sales - with an 'all-time' sales record of Dh7.88 billion ($2.16 billion). That's massive 24.39 per cent increase over 2022 - and 6.40 per cent up over pre-pandemic in 2019.

No surprises too in the fact that December finished with record monthly sales of Dh807.6 million ($221 million) - an 8.37 per cent increase compared to the 2022 tally.

December sales were fueled by Dubai Duty Free’s 40th anniversary promotions, when a 25 per cent discount was available on December 20. That in itself set off a 'shopping spree' of Dh54.1 million ($14.8 million) for 24 hours. 

Online sales made up Dh164 million, or 2 per cent of the overall 2023 numbers. 

There were more than 20 million sales transactions through 2023 - or an average of 55,000 sales transactions per day. This covered 55.2 million units of merchandise sold.

Triple goals - done and dusted

“We are thrilled to have achieved our target sales for the year, a record month in December and a record year in 2023, which culminated with our celebrations of our milestone 40th Anniversary," said Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO.

These are the major sales categories:

Sales through Departure clocked in at Dh7.06 billion, pushing the 90 per cent mark of total annual sales.

Who came, who bought?

In terms of top source markets, India travellers were number one with Dh973 million sales, followed by Russia with Dh759 million, China (Dh564 million), Saudi Arabia (Dh512 million), and the UK (Dh373 million).

Ongoing expansion

Dubai Duty Free will see major refurbishment at Concourse B, which will be completed shortly. There are also the scheduled renovations of three Arrival shops in the first quarter of 2024, with construction to continue until the second to third quarter of 2024.

Concourse A areas will also be refurbished from the second quarter of 2024 and finished during early- to mid-2025 with three new boutiques of 'major fashion brands'.