The Dubai Mall ranks higher than London’s Regent Street and New York’s Fifth Avenue in the overall quality of its retail offerings. It’s also ahead of the Champs-Elysees in Paris, according to the latest Global Retail Destination from Savills, a UK consultancy.
In terms of city rankings, New York leads the way, ahead of London and Hong Kong (tied in second place) and followed by Dubai.
“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 Savills report says.
According to a survey in the report, 88.4 per cent of people said Dubai has the best choice and quality of shops in the world.
The number of overnight visitors to Dubai, between 2016 and 2020, is expected to increase by 9.7 per cent.
Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index 2015 estimates there were 14.3 million overnight visitors to Dubai last year, who spent $11.7 billion at an average of $819 per person. This is behind New York’s average spend of $1,416.
“Dubai is now perceived as a top global retail destination,” said David Godchaux, who heads Core which is the local partner of Savills. “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.”