Marcello Baricordi [third from right] hands over the Visa Festivals of the World Grand Prize to Mousa Ibrahim Mahmoud [fourth from right]. Also present are Karim Beg, Head of Marketing, Middle East and North Africa, at Visa [second from right], Guy Martin, Business Leader — Marketing UAE, extreme right, Amresh Nandkeolyar [second from left] and Bino Abraham Thomas, AVP — Cards, Consumer Banking, DIB [extreme left] during the ceremony. — Courtesy photo
Visa, the leading global payments technology company, has announced the grand prize winner in its “Festivals of the World” as part of its campaign for the Dubai Shopping Festival in 2013. Syrian Mousa Ibrahim Mahmoud was named lucky winner and will enjoy a “holiday of a lifetime” for two in exciting festivals in the world, including including trips to the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, the Venice Carnival, Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, Macys Thanksgiving Parade in New York and the Sydney Festival. Mousa made the purchase on his Visa card issued by Dubai Islamic Bank [DIB]. Mousa was handed over his grand prize by Marcello Baricordi, General Manager for Visa in the UAE, at a special ceremony held at the Visa office last week. Mr Amresh Nandkeolyar, VP – Head of Cards, Consumer Banking at DIB, was also present on the occasion. On that occusion, Baricordi said: “We would like to congratulate Mr. Mousa Ibrahim Mahmoud on this fantastic trip of a lifetime with Visa. Visitors from across the globe come to Dubai to take advantage of the great promotions on offer during the DSF and we are happy for Mr. Mousa for winning this unique Visa promotion for DSF as also the dream prize. This DSF has been one of the most successful ever for Visa with a significant increase in the number of transactions demonstrating growing confidence in the use of Visa debit and credit cards.” On his part, Mousa said: “I would like to thank Visa for giving me this wonderful opportunity – and this is a dream come true for me. I have been in Dubai since 1999, and have never won anything in any promotion or raffle. I have not gone on a holiday for the last three years, and thanks to Visa, I can now plan a trip with my wife and three kids to Europe – something I always dreamt about.” The Visa Festival of the World grand prize was announced at the end of a month-long Big Box campaign launched by Visa during DSF 2013. A number of Big Boxes were placed at strategic points across Dubai, with the focus being put on a secret grand prize within the giant box at The Dubai Mall. Consumers were entitled to enter the draw and guess what the grand prize in the box with every transaction they undertook with any of their Visa cards. — SG
