Dubai Mall has ranked higher than London’s Regent Street, New York’s Fifth Avenue and the Champs-Elysees in Paris in terms of the overall quality of its retail facilities and amenities, according to the latest Global Retail Destination Index 2016 from Savills.
The report measures the various retail attributes held by London’s West End and compares them to six other leading cities – Dubai, New York, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Dubai Mall locations were based on their brand positioning in comparison to the key retail destinations in the West End. As a result, each strip of the mall – Star/Grand Atrium strip, Fashion Catwalk and Fashion Avenue – was treated like a ‘street’.
The report said: “Dubai is forecast to report the strongest growth in retail sales over the next five years of the seven global cities examined, potentially challenging London’s West End’s current global position.”
The top ranking global retail city from the analysis was New York. London’s West End ranked second alongside Hong Kong, followed by Dubai.
According to the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2015, there were 14.3 million overnight visitors to Dubai last year, which commanded a total spend of $11.7 billion, an average of $819 spent per visitor. This was some way behind New York’s average spend of $1,416.
Dubai Mall was named the least expensive in terms of indicative prime total occupational costs as of Q4 2015 – prime rent per sq ft $240; additional occupational costs per sq ft $60; total occupational costs per sq ft $300. This compared to the total occupational costs per sq ft in New York’s Fifth Avenue of $3,900.
According to a survey response in the report, 88.4 percent of people said Dubai has the best choice and quality of shops in the world.
Dubai outperformed London, Paris, Singapore and Milan for shopper experience, which included ease of shopping, connectivity, service levels and directional signage.
David Godchaux, CEO of Core Savills, said: “Dubai is now perceived as a top global retail destination. But this is only the tip of the iceberg as we now start seeing developers trying to improve the shopping experience not only for tourists as in the past 15 years, but also for residents.
“This trend of moving away from the ‘bigger is better’ approach, to more user and resident friendly retail developments, bringing a real city experience and European-style shopping to areas of Dubai similar to those found in London, Paris and Milan, is something that was much awaited by the market and that we see finally happening.”