The Dubai Mall, the city's most-definitive lifestyle shopping and leisure destination, will host a spectacular shopping, entertainment and raffle extravaganza from April 30 to May 29, 2009. The Festival@The Dubai Mall is envisaged as the Gulf region's most innovative mall-based shopping and leisure event offering superb shopping deals, life-changing raffle draws and non-stop entertainment. With Dubai Shopping Festival Office as a strategic partner, Festival@The Dubai Mall celebrates the tag-line “30 Days, Many Ways.” Ahmad Al Matrooshi, managing director - UAE, Emaar Properties, said Festival@The Dubai Mall is conceptualized to become an important event in the tourism and retail calendar of Dubai. “Tourism and retail have been the key pillars of Dubai's economy,” he said. “With Festival@The Dubai Mall, we are not only adding further stimulus to the retail sector of the emirate but also strengthening the tourism experience offered by Dubai. The festival is being promoted across the GCC region and larger Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and Iran to ensure wide-scale participation that will energise Dubai's tourism, retail and hospitality sectors.” Matrooshi said Festival@The Dubai Mall offers the entire breadth of excitement associated with a shopping and leisure extravaganza. “There will be exceptional shopping deals at the over 900 retail outlets in The Dubai Mall and shoppers stand to win millions of dirhams in prizes, all planned to give a boost to the local economy. The Dubai Mall is an unparalleled family destination and with this festival we are showcasing the mall's unmatched strengths to the world.” Nasser Rafi, chief executive officer, Emaar Malls Group, said Festival@The Dubai Mall is a timely celebration of Dubai's stature in global retailing as the fourth most popular destination for retailers, as recognised recently by CB Richard Ellis in their global survey. “The CBRE survey revealed that 46 percent of 280 of the world's top retailers have a presence in Dubai, next only to London, Paris and New York City. This is a big achievement for our city, which has invested heavily in retail infrastructure. The Dubai Mall is one of the most significant investments in retailing, and what we have created is a world-class mall and a superb shopping and entertainment destination.” Visitors to The Dubai Mall during the month-long festival can look forward to exceptional shopping deals with three kinds of shopping offers - Part Sale, Festival Discount and Festival Offers. Mall tenants will display their chosen category of the offers in-store for easy identification by customers. The Dubai Mall has also made special arrangements for mall tenants to obtain these permissions from the Department of Economic Development (DED) office, located within the mall. The Festival@The Dubai Mall will give away five prizes each of AED10,000 every day and AED100,000 every Saturday with a bonus AED 50,000 if the winner happens to be present at the draw, with a grand prize of AED 1 million at the end of event, through raffle draws. Shoppers get a raffle coupon for every AED 500 spent on aggregate purchases across any retail outlet, including the food court in the mall. The purchases may be made during the 30 days of the festival. One of the innovative events at Festival@The Dubai Mall is “Bid 2 Win,” a live daily auction of three to four products from mall retailers valued between AED10,000 and AED100,000. Any visitor can participate by sending an SMS with his or her price bid, which starts at AED1. Another fabulous winning opportunity is the Grand Bentley Raffle, whereby only 5,000 tickets, which can be purchased at AED200 each, are drawn to reward a lucky winner with the luxurious, four-door Bentley Continental Flying Spur. Rafi said: “The Bid 2 Win and bargain deals will be a significant boost for retail in the mall, while also offering families the opportunity to win big. With several flagship stores and exclusive franchises in the Middle East, The Dubai Mall is a full-spectrum family shopping and leisure destination. We are adding to the appeal of the mall to families with the Festival@The Dubai Mall.” Complementing these retail and raffle-driven events will be larger-than-life entertainment programs. Apart from The Dubai Fountain show every evening, which is currently in the testing phase, visitors will be entertained by 25 solo acts including jugglers, musicians and magicians, skating shows at the Dubai Ice-Rink and celebrity appearances. “The Dubai Mall is already popular for the Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, The Waterfall and the Olympic-sized Dubai Ice-Rink. For the Festival@The Dubai Mall, we are introducing several innovative leisure events,” said Rafi. Festival@The Dubai Mall is supported by Dubai Media Inc, Arab Media Group and Emaar Hospitality Group. Dubai Shopping Festival Office offers strategic support in executing the various retail and entertainment activities. __
