by The Dubai Shopping Festival is among the largest shopping events in the world. What started out as a simple strategy to improve the economic growth of Dubai have over the years garnered huge attention from worldwide travellers. In fact, this is one of the Dubai events visitors are keenly interested in experience in Dubai. But every coin has two sides and so does a world-renowned shopping event like DSF. With a huge population of the crowd in the UAE immigrants, the culture of the UAE requires festivals like the DSF to retain and restore their ethnicity and customs. However, any shopping festival comes with a host of risks. While the DSF has played a vital role in enhancing Dubai’s reputation on the world map, it has also given rise to significant risks for small businesses and traders who are not participating in the DSF. Any less than successful effort can be detrimental to Dubai’s reputation as the shopping capital of the west. The most affected of the lot is the local businesses who are not a part of the DSF. They already run on very low margins, and with the DSF providing unbelievable discounts and deals, they receive very few travelers and visitors on their stores. Listed below are some of the pros and cons of the Dubai Shopping Festival.
PROS:
Offers a huge boost to Dubai tourism:
Dubai Shopping Festival has consistently succeeded to allure huge tourist influx to Dubai. Though it was initiated in 1996 to promote trade in the emirate, it quickly caught the attention of transit travellers and those who were staying in Dubai for stopovers. Every year DSF was organized bigger and better with loads of shopping deals, giveaways, and extravagant entertainment. Its exaggerated events and incredible retail discounts transformed Dubai from just another ‘transit city to a much-sought tourist destination. DSF has played a pivotal part to successfully manage and increase Dubai’s economic and tourism statistics.
The real reason behind the growth of shopping malls in Dubai:
Dubai’s retail scene changed drastically once DSF was a success. Presently, Dubai has over 50 outstanding shopping malls scattered all over the emirate. This shopping mecca was once a trading emirate but the advent of DSF and its triumph made the administration realize the potential of Dubai’s retail scenario. Its success played a prominent role in paving the way to create numerous malls in Dubai.
More events mean more work options for locals and expats:
DSF goes beyond shopping. It’s not just retail therapy, but a month-long celebration of food events and live entertainment as well. DSF is a highly popular event and hence it serves as a platform for many renowned artists of all genre from all over the world to host their workshops, shows, and concerts. For a series of huge events, the additional manpower is needed for organizing for the event months before, to make it successful. This implies that DSF offers a multitude of jobs related to these events, offering employment opportunities to its locals.
CONS:
Loss of strong relationships within the community and the customer:
A shopping festival brings in a lot of cases for building a healthy relationship with the community. With maximum focus during the planning of the celebration. During the planning stage of the DSF, the bonds between the government & its subsidiaries, private organizations, and adjacent groups are well-connected. Being not a part of the DSF , the local businesses are disconnected to the community during the duration of the festival. It takes a lot of time and effort to build a long-lasting relationship with the customer and the relations last beyond the sales as well for these small businesses. With a secure network of connected people not being a part of their plans, the collective knowledge and skills to improve their activities is a significant hampering factor to the small businesses. Retaining an existing customer is far easier than building a new relationship with a new customer.
The cost of goods offered by the DSF plays a challenging role for the small traders to gain profits on sales:
The DSF comes with sales of about 50-75% off, and this helps them negate the small traders by offering prices equivalent or similar to them. The small traders anyway do business using low margins, and all these get locked off as people go for the DSF participating outlets because the international brands are offered at locally affordable prices. Whatever margin these small traders get is negated by the incredible discounts offered by the DSF. With unmatched quality, variety, and designer labels, people prefer the DSF participating outlets in comparison to the local small traders.
No positive contribution to the economy:
Festivals like the DSF play a key role in attracting visitors from different parts of the globe. Travelers spend money on purchasing various materials that indeed boosts the local economy from a festive point of view. For people or businesses who are not participating in the economy, they do not face a good sales period during these festivals. The loss generated because of the low rates of these festivals cannot be measured by any factor. The economic contribution of these business plays a null role during these festivals.
Lose out on an opportunity to foster and enhance community pride:
The DSF had very humble inception in 1996, but today it has transformed into one of the biggest shopping extravaganzas in the world. It has transformed the face of Dubai in the western world. When the shoppers who do not participate in the DSF lose out on this opportunity to engage with a community. When a festival like the DSF fosters a sense of ethnic pride and showcases the rich heritage of the UAE, people feel disconnected shopping elsewhere apart from DSF participating outlets.
Skipping new innovative things:
A festival’s theme plays an instrumental role in bonding and educating the visitors about the culture and traditions. One of the social benefits of the DSF is that the visitors get access or a glimpse of the culture, customs, and traditions prevalent in the UAE. Any business that is not attached to the DSF loses out on the above. Experiential learning offered in celebrations, and events like the DSF plays a vital role in understanding the strengths and limitations of a business. For small businesses, who are not part of DSF, they miss out on this rare and unique learning experience.
Miss out on growing businesses:
A festival brings out a whole new world of business opportunities especially critical for growing businesses. With increasing number of tourists and visitors coming over to Dubai to quench their shopping wish list. Every money they spend can be counted as a business opportunity. This gives rise to a budding environment for small businesses to build their business network. With the immense popularity of the DSF, these small businesses lose on these precious business opportunities.
