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The Moodie Blog is in Dubai, ready to join in – and report on – Dubai Duty Free’s 25th anniversary celebrations tomorrow.
At midnight tonight a 24-hour party kicks off. The retailer is offering an extraordinary -25% discount across a range of items to help create a celebratory buzz and to drive sales.
We’re going airside from early in the morning – embedded with the retail troops, as it were – to try to capture the excitement of the day. All eyes will be on the day’s final turnover – the subject of a readers’ competition on The Moodie Report that has attracted an incredible level of interest.
It seems like half the industry has had a stab at projecting the day’s sales for our Dubai Duty Free ‘Multi Millionaire’ contest. Small wonder – the first prize is a ticket in the retailer’s raffle promotion of the same name, offering the chance to win US$5 million.
Last year anniversary day sales reached AED46,211,743.74 (US$12.6 million at the exchange rate of the time).
Where will tomorrow end up? We have estimates ranging from the 40 million Dirham mark to above 70 million and just about every point in between. Entries have now closed. We think it’s going to be north of 60 million, possibly by some distance. There’s a new terminal added since last year but of course there has been a slowdown of growth since the economic crisis began to kick in around the world. But can that hold Dubai Duty Free back on this most auspicious of days? We don’t think so. AED65 million, plus some small change? Don’t bet against it.
Now wouldn’t winning a ticket in this incredible raffle be a nice way to close out a difficult year? Sadly The Moodie Report is banned from entering. We’ll just do our bit to help raise the turnover by indulging in a spot of duty free shopping. I quite fancy a smart red Porsche (below) I saw in arrivals today.
Watch out for our reports both on this Blog and on our home page. Let the party commence.
