Dubai: The handshake that welcomes you as you enter the incredibly bright and spacious office is both warm and reassuring.
All things considered, Colm McLoughlin, the Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO of the multiple award winning Dubai Duty Free is an icon, an entrepreneur extraordinaire.
For ever since he set up Dubai Duty Free back in 1983, at the request of the Dubai government, McLoughlin has masterminded ground-breaking initiatives that have paved the way for it to become one of the leading airport retailers in the world with sales turnover of $1.85 billion (2016).
The airport retailer is also the owner and organiser of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, which are currently celebrating a landmark 25th anniversary.
Gulf News caught up with McLoughlin, the driving force behind the iconic tournament, and requested him to talk us through its glorious history,
Excerpts from the interview:
How much of a challenge has it been managing one of the most famous sporting events in the UAE? How much of personal inputs have gone into making it an unforgettable experience for everyone?
We’re very happy that the tournament is 25 years old this year. We have a great team of staff in the Dubai Duty Free and their efforts have made my efforts look small. Naturally I’ve been very interested and involved in it from the very beginning, but it’s not just me. Everybody has put in a great effort to help make the event successful.
How exciting has it been to have the opportunity to serve this iconic event. What drives this extraordinary passion that you have?
It’s one of the things that we boast about, and that’s maybe the wrong word. But we do boast about the tournament all the time. Every time we get the opportunity we tell people about the awards we won. Because of tennis we built the tennis stadium. Because of that we built the Irish Village, which is very successful. Because of that we built the Century Village, because of that we built our own hotel which is the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel. It has been very exciting and very rewarding.
Looking back to the very beginning, 1993, were there any concerns when Dubai Duty Free decided to host a tennis tournament of this magnitude?
At the time, there was a big interest in sport in Dubai and we in Dubai Duty Free identified sport as being a very good thing to promote DDF and to promote the Dubai airport. As it transpired, the tennis has worked very successfully. We got word after last year’s tournament, from the ATP and WTA, that the media value to Dubai from this event was valued at $820 million. So it’s very exciting for all of us. In the beginning, there were challenges. We had to learn about the tour. We started our event with a tournament called the 250 Series and we didn’t understand what the difference with other events was at the time.
Now we know that there are 250 Series, 500 Series, there’s a 1000 Series and there are Masters and Grand slams events. But at the beginning we didn’t understand all that.
If you analyse the core ingredients that make an event a success, do you find that the tournament has ticked off all the right boxes?
It ticks off a lot of the right boxes. In ten of the last 11 years, players have voted the Dubai Tennis as the best 500 Series in the world. We continue to get a great interest from media and we get a lot of cooperation from Tennis Emirates, the ATP and WTA. We are in fact a global sponsor of the WTA. So we have to boast and say yes, it ticks off a lot of the right boxes.
So much has changed since the early days, not least with the introduction of the WTA women’s tournament in 2001. Is it a success you hope to build on, to raise the event’s profile further in the general sporting landscape?
We do the best we can. This being our 25th anniversary, we’ve produced a very nice 25-minute video, we will be launching a special book and we’ve arranged for a commemorative coin to be introduced. I think all these things help increase the media coverage of the event and its profile. Each year, after the tournament, we examine the event and do a list of things that we think we did well, and a list of things that we think we did not do well. And we try and improve them for the following year so that the interest will get bigger and bigger. It’s important that we joined the ladies tour 17 years ago. We have seven of the top 10 ladies in the world entered for this year and we have two ladies who are our ambassadors on the WTA (Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki) and they did a very good job for us. So we try and do more and more of that every year.
If you’re hoping to encourage more people to come to the tennis, you will have to expect them to ask ‘What’s in it for me?’ From your point of view, what does the event have to offer?
Well I think it offers one of the biggest sporting events in the Middle East, and one of the biggest sporting events in Dubai. We do not consciously put the price of tickets up so that it offers good value. The tournament offers a very sociable and amenable venue with the Irish village, the Aviation Club lawns, the lakes, the restaurants, the catering. It offers people the opportunity to come and have a day’s leisure and it offers the best players in the world. Thousands of people will go to watch Roger Federer or Andy Murray play. So it has all these things to offer, but it has a social aspect as well.
As the Vice-President and CEO of Dubai Duty Free, you get to know several sporting legends on a personal level. What strikes you most about these larger than life figures?
Well I’ve always admired their humility, I always admired how well they do their job and I’ve admired their character. That when somebody might get angry on court, when they’re off court they are very nice normal people. Many of the players have written to us to say how much they’ve enjoyed playing in our event, their visit to Dubai, the fan experience. Many players also volunteer to participate in charity events and they promote some of the things that we do. They try to give good value for their time here and they do genuinely help. Because they are famous at their work, they do help in the promotion of the event and the promotion of Dubai.
From a revenue standpoint, how well is the tournament doing or do you expect it to do even better?
It would be nicer to see better results. When we built the tennis stadium in 1996, it cost us Dh73 million. But we have purposely not increased our ticket prices as they would in other venues. However, the value comes back really in the media coverage for Dubai, Dubai Duty Free, Dubai Airport and life in Dubai and yes, we are happy with that return.
Sports venues are full of dreams. What sort of a buzz does it give you every time you enter the stadium?
I love it very much. I love watching tennis, for when I was young I played tennis. I love the excitement, I love to see the crowd enjoying it. I love it when they do this Mexican wave, I like it when I see how the ball kids work, the way the linesmen work and I’m very very happy that all that has been done locally.
Our tournament referee (Hany Al Khafief) is a young man who started working as a linesman 25 years ago. The security is local, the police security is local, all the officials are local; and the tournament is run by Dubai Duty Free staff. By our marketing department: Salah Tahlak, who works as our tournament director, Sinead Al Sibai, who is in charge of our marketing. We have a tennis committee headed by my deputy Ramesh Cidambi. Since day one, all the ball boys and ball girls have been trained by the Clarke Francis School and I’m very happy about that. I get a great buzz when I go there.
I remember the very beginning very well. Fabrice Santoro entered our tourmament and he was in the final in the first year where he was beaten by Karel Novacek. Fabrice came every year until he won the tournament in 2003.It was fantastic because the night before the final he was hospitalised. He was discharged and came back and won the tournament. Great excitement.
How do you propose to consolidate the tournament’s position as the best in the region?
We’ve won several awards from the media and the players. Our spectator numbers have been growing every year and so has our media coverage. We get as good an entry in our 500 Series as the Masters have and I would say trying to upgrade it to a Masters is very far down our list. From Dubai Duty Free’s point of view, we’re very happy with where we are now.
