Dubai: After serving as the General Manager while setting up Dubai Duty Free way back in 1983, Colm McLoughlin took over as Executive Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Duty Free in June 2016.
He is also the CEO of the Dubai Aviation Club, which is owned by the Government of Dubai and incorporates the Dubai Tennis Stadium, The Irish Village and the Century Village, all of which he was instrumental in creating. He also represents Dubai Duty Free on the Board of Dubai Airports Group. He has been vice-chairman of Dubai Duty Free since July 2011.
McLoughlin is officially recognised as a ‘Superbrand’ and the current holder of the prestigious Frontier Award for ‘Airport Retailer of the Year’ has received over 150 awards. In a candid chat with Gulf News, McLoughlin speaks about what ticks the right boxes for the annual tournament that is owned and organised by Dubai Duty Free.
GN: What are your reflections as we reach midway through the men’s tournament of the Dubai Tennis Championships?
Colm McLoughlin: I am a very happy man. The women’s week was very exciting. We had 35,000 spectators through the week, of which 25,000 were on centre court alone. And I am very happy that Elina [Svitolina] could return and win her title again. This is good as she is a good winner, a solid world No. 4 and she has 11 titles already when she is still so young.
Q: Do you think there is a suitable return on investment as far as this tournament goes?
A: Undoubtedly yes. We get figures from the ATP and the WTA that tell us the length of time of viewership, the number of spectators, etc. They actually put a value on all these things and arrive at figures to show you how much you would need if you had to buy that much of time on television. Last year alone that figure was $920 million (Dh3.37 billion). Most certainly this has been such a good return for Dubai. We meet people all the time who make it a point to travel here through the years just for this event, and that only adds up to the tournament and to the place. I just think the return on investment is many times over.
Q. What do you think was a turning point or part of the turning point this was further enhanced?
A. I think the one thing that helped make up this difference is when we built this stadium. At the beginning we had a temporary scaffolding and after we built and inaugurated this stadium in 1995 things seriously started falling in place. Of course, this is a multi-purpose facility. Along with the tennis we have had several concerts, boxing matches, darts tournaments, dancing shows, seminars. And out of all that came the Irish Village and the Century Village with all the restaurants around the stadium. Honestly, we didn’t visualise that we would have those sorts of things when we first started the tennis. We own our hotel now. And the women’s tournament joining to the men’s as back-to-back events makes perfect sense from the sporting point of view. We all know Roger Federer has won the event seven times and Justine Henin has won it four times and that we’ve had 20 world number ones play in our event so far. So it can’t get any better.
Q. Exactly how much better can all this get?
A. This year, we are unfortunate that in the men’s week that there have been a lot of injuries. Andy Murray had surgery, Novak Djokovic is also injured and both are past winners. I am looking forward to this week at identifying a few of the future stars and a future world number one. This year we have the world No. 4 and he’s heading rightly to be world No.1. Of course, the overall event can be better by thinking of more activities around it. We have a kids’ day that is very successful, and then we have a charity thing that benefits from such side activities. But most importantly, we have a terrific party atmosphere and family feel at the same time. All the restaurants around the place make a good effort during the two weeks to satisfy people. We get tremendous support from the RTA, the Dubai Police and the security personnel in making this a safe and secure event. I think all these cooperating will help grow us as a whole.
Q. Can you elaborate on the earlier aspect of identifying players who can be stars of the future here?
A. Roger [Federer] became the world No. 1 in Rotterdam last week. Had he not got that then we had a wild card reserved for him so that he could play here and become the world No. 1. Our congratulations to him for being the world No. 1 again. He is after all our seven-time winner. Players keep on popping up all the time. We have not identified who is going to be the next No. 1, but we were very excited earlier in the week when one of our boys [Alexei Popyrin] nearly qualified to the main draw. There are nice stories like these. It will be good if some unknown, we don’t mind, or not a well-known player, goes on to be a star here. And if he does, then we can claim that we have helped him.
Q. Any plans for the future?
A. We have a plan in place to carry an extension on the stadium and seat more people. We put the Spidercam on Centre Court this year and the Hawk-Eye on Court 1. And these are small things that help make our event even better and bring it closer to the spectators who come to watch it.
