UAE. Dubai Duty Free is on track to surge past its previous annual sales record of US$2 billion after exceeding targets for the first quarter, according to Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Colm McLoughlin.
Speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report – the full interview will appear in our April Magazine edition – McLoughlin said: “For January, February and March to date, we are +53% up on sales in the same period last year and +24% ahead of our budget. Our biggest year ever was 2019 when we had over US$2 billion in sales. We are now confident that we will beat that figure in 2023 and reach US$2.1 billion to US$2.2 billion.”
In 2022 sales reached US$1.74 billion, representing a +78% leap on the COVID-hit previous year.
The predicted 2023 sales figure will be reached even without the full recovery of passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport. Passenger volumes are anticipated to hit 79.8 million this year, still behind the 2019 figure of 86.4 million.
“We are seeing positive spending figures,” said McLoughlin. “Spend per head, which was around US$39 pre-pandemic, sits at around US$47 currently.”
Under sales by nationality year to date, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia are the top three but these are now followed by China in fourth, just two months after outbound travel restrictions were lifted by the Chinese government. Before the pandemic, Chinese accounted for around 17% of Dubai Duty Free’s annual sales despite representing only around 4% of passenger numbers.
In 2019 Dubai International served 11,000 passengers a day on China-bound flights – today that figure is already back to 4,800 and rising.
“Chinese already account for 4.6% of our business in the year to date, and 6% in March alone, and we have no doubt that this will rise even more,” said McLoughlin.
*The full interview will feature in the April edition of The Moodie Davitt Magazine.
To partner with us for this edition, which carries special regional reports on the Americas and Middle East, contact: Irene@MoodieDavittReport.com, Sarah@MoodieDavittReport.com or Aran@MoodieDavittReport.com 
