Duty Free marks 25 years with discount offers

Dubai: Dubai Duty Free (DDF) yesterday celebrated its 25th anniversary by offering a 25 per cent discount to travellers during the day.

The milestone was celebrated with a cake-cutting ceremony and a host of promotional activities.

"The anniversary discount offer, which began with Dubai Duty Free's 20th anniversary in 2003 proved to be so popular that we have decided to continue this offer once again this year," said the managing director, Colm McLoughlin.

"We see this as a way of saying thank you to our customers who have helped Dubai Duty Free to achieve such fantastic results over the years," he added.

The duty free industry is worth $32 billion (Dh117.54 billion) globally with airports generating roughly half of this and DDF contributing six per cent to the global industry.

The industry began in 1947 at Shannon Airport in Ireland, when businessman Brendan O'Regan started selling a selection of Irish handicrafts to transatlantic travellers. This year, DDF recorded a 23 per cent increase in sales, compared to 2007.

"We have just broken through the $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) sales target for this year so far and things look positive for the DDF," McLoughlin said.

Yesterday's offer was expected to result in a dramatic increase in sales, as has happened in previous anniversary discounts. "In 2007, when we offered 24 per cent discount to mark our 24th anniversary on the December 20, our sales soared to Dh46.2 million so we are expecting even higher sales on the anniversary day this year," he said.

Many elated travellers took advantage of the discount offer.