Dubai shopping festival
Every winter, Dubai takes shopping to the next level with the Dubai Shopping Festival. From mid-January to mid-February, millions of shopaholics, bargain hunters, and tourists descend on the elaborate emirate as it buzzes with a colossal array of discounts, contests, prizes, fireworks, entertainment, and more. If you are looking for the best rest, then Dubai during the festival is the destination for you.
The Dubai Shopping Festival was launched in 1996 as a government-led initiative to revitalize retail, but has now become one of the most famous shopping festivals in the world. Every year, the month-long festival becomes bigger and more spectacular than the last, attracting shoppers and tourists from all over the world. A mega 3.35 million visitors flocked to Dubai for the latest event, lured by huge discounts on duty-free shopping, as well as contests, entertainment and festivities.
The festival kicks off with an extravagant opening ceremony, complete with fireworks and light shows over Dubai Creek, continuing to light up the Dubai skies throughout the festival.
Bargain hunters will be in heaven at the Dubai Shopping Festival with massive discounts on anything you can think of, including gold, Dubai’s flagship product, top designer fashion brands, electronics, cars and more. There are also hundreds of contests throughout the festival, with prizes running into the millions. The 2012 festival includes a mega raffle where each day of the festival one lucky shopper wins a luxury Infinite QX56 SUV costing AED 350,000 plus AED 100,000.
In addition to the incredible discounts and retail competitions that take place during the Dubai Shopping Festival, the entertainment throughout the city is another major attraction for tourists. Music concerts, street performers, fashion shows, film festivals, cultural events, and more fill the streets and malls of downtown. Family entertainment is big business during the Dubai Shopping Festival with a plethora of attractions appearing in Dubai parks including a mini fun fair, World of Ice, Flower Garden, helicopter tours, spaceship, zone of Spiderman, remote control boats and much more.
In addition to the thrills of the shopping festival, the city of Dubai itself offers many fascinating sights and interesting things to do outside the scope of the Dubai Shopping Festival. Visitors can head to the Bastakia Quarter for a taste of traditional Dubai, marvel at the Burj Al Arab, the world’s tallest hotel, play a round of golf on Dubai’s world-class courses, or go on a desert safari just outside from the city limits, to mention just a few.
With regular flights to Dubai from most UK international airports, plus plenty of city center accommodation options, a shopping break in Dubai during the Dubai Shopping Festival is a fantastic and doable shopping getaway .
Whatever you choose to do, a Dubai city break is a unique experience and if you are looking for a shopping holiday then Dubai during the Dubai Shopping Festival is the best destination.