Dubai Targets Growing Ugandan Travellers Ahead of Biggest Shopping Festival

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has for the first time initiated direct engagement with Ugandan travellers ahead of this year’s Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF).

Officials from Dubai Tourism who jetted in this week, told reporters in Kampala that this year’s event, which is the 25th anniversary of the shopping festival, will be the biggest and most exciting ever.

Salim Dahman, the Dubai Tourism Head of Campaigns says this time they have decided to directly engage Ugandan travellers owing to their growing numbers.

Uganda currently has the 5th highest number of travellers to Dubai from Africa, at 46,000 annually.

The top four are Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya.

While most of the 13million visitors to Dubai come for leisure, Mr Dahman says more Ugandans have been traveling to the UAE mostly to visit family and friends.

“For Uganda the visitation is because there is this large and strong East Africa community in Dubai,” he says. “The Ugandans know more about Dubai compared for instance to the Nigerians.”

He also attributed the increase in Ugandan travellers to the fast growing air transport.

Emirates, the UAE national career, recently increased its flights to Uganda from 7 to 10 a week.

“On top of Emirates, we have another budget airline, Fly Dubai, which also increased frequency. This has played a huge role in catering for the middle class and lower middle class who can now afford to travel,” he said.

“I understand that Uganda Airlines are in talks to come to Dubai once they have their new aircraft, I hope that happens because we welcome more airlines.”

2019 DSF

This year’s Dubai Shopping Festival will kick off on December 26th and will be running up to February 1st.

According to Jannelle Lewis, who heads Dubai Tourism’s Public relations, this year’s festival will kick off with a spectacular opening ceremony at Burj Park, Downtown Dubai.

“The star-studded event will feature a series of concerts by Emirati and international singers, cultural and family-oriented performances from 2pm to 11pm on 26 and 27 December,” she says.

“Additionally, a ‘lights on’ event will countdown to when the city’s lights are officially turned on with fireworks adding colour and sparkle to Dubai’s famous skyline.

The event will include a number of promotional offers such as the 12 Hour Sale at Majid Al Futtaim Malls, giving customers up to 90 per cent off and a chance for shoppers at Majid Al Futtaim Malls to enter into the draw to become one of the 25 DSF SHARE Millionaires where each winner receives 1,000,000 SHARE points.

Other shoppers will get a chance to win one of five Nissan models – Nissan Patrol 2020, Nissan Pathfinder 2019, Nissan X-TRAIL 2020, Nissan Kicks 2020 and Nissan Sentra 2020 – simply by purchasing items worth a minimum of AED 25 from any EPCO or ENOC station. In total, 33 cars will be given away during DSF.