The much-anticipated 24-hour shopping bonanza produced big gains for perfumes, which notched the highest sales at Dhs15.294m/US$4.190m.

Dubai Duty Free’s (DDF) popular 24-hour anniversary shopping bonanza netted dhs59.993 million/US$16.436 million, an upswing in sales of +11% year-on-year.

As reported, this year’s spending spree to mark the travel retailer’s 41^st birthday on 20 December offered a time-limited 25% discount on a range of merchandise in store and online.

Perfumes notched the highest sales at Dhs15.294m/$4.190m, followed by liquor at Dhs6.479m/$1.775m, and cosmetics at Dhs6.240m/$1.710m.

Ticket sales for the Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire competition reached Dhs5.491m/$1.504m, earning it fourth place on the revenue leaderboard, while watches took fifth spot with Dhs5.374m/$1.472m.

The 11% overall growth in revenue versus last year’s anniversary sales was spurred by major categories including precious jewellery (+66.8%), confectionery (+56.4%), cosmetics (+46.6%), perfumes (+23.4%) and cigarettes (+22.8%).

All eyes on FY24 result

Ramesh Cidambi, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free, commented: “The team at Dubai Duty Free achieved sales of nearly 60 million [dhs] in a 24-hour period through 94,000 transactions at the point of sale terminals in both airports.

“It is a remarkable achievement as they coped with the increased demand due to the anniversary discount on one of the busiest travel days of the year. It was also a very festive occasion with the employees enthusiastically celebrating our 41^st anniversary in all the concourses and terminals.”

Shopfloor sales were fuelled by 800 pallets of merchandise issued from the Dubai Duty Free Distribution Centre, with 265,799 units of items.

Promotional offers on a range of merchandise triggered a spending spree at Dubai International and Al Maktoum International Airports, with anniversary sales revenue up 11% on last year. Pictured is the Dubai Duty Free executive team led by Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi at the ceremonial cutting of the anniversary cake in the Concourse C Control Tower. 

The highly anticipated Dubai Duty Free anniversary promotion was first introduced when the airport retailer marked its 20th Anniversary in 2003 and continues to be popular over the traditionally busy travel period, with many passengers choosing trips to coincide with the 20 December anniversary date to avail of the 25% discount.

Total sales at Duty Free for the 11 months through November equalled US$1.94 billion, with the travel retailer optimistic of hitting its target of more than US$2 billion for the year.

November concluded with sales of US$205.67m, making it the fifth-best month ever.

The travel retailer posted record sales of $2.16 billion in 2023, its milestone 40th year.

DDF will release its full-year 2024 sales in the coming weeks.

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