The Dubai Shopping Festival Office, recently organized a tour for a delegation from the Tourism Authority of Thailand at ‘Dubai Mall’, the biggest shopping mall in the world. The tour comes as part of several initiatives and meetings executed by DSF office during its participation at the Arabian Travel Market 2009, and also amid the vibrant “Dubai Mall Festivalâ€, being held between 30th April to 29 May 2009, of which the Festival Office is as a strategic partner.
Laila Suhail, CEO of the DSF Office received His Excellency Chumpol Silapa-Archa, the Minister for Tourism of Thailand, and accompanied him on a tour of Dubai Mall, visiting several key attractions at the mall. The minister was also shown activities organized as part of the Dubai Mall Festival, a month-long shopping fiesta that covers around 900 stores in the mall. The DSF Office is a strategic partner of Dubai Mall in organizing the festival.
His Excellency Chumpol Silapa-Archa hailed Dubai Mall as a monumental achievement for Dubai and the region, praising the efforts of Dubai in successfully promoting itself as a leading global destination and also commented that the concept of organizing festivals in malls as an innovative tool to stimulate the local retail sector.
On her part, Suhail commented on the tour by saying, “The tour at Dubai Mall comes as part of the DSF Office mandate to promote the newest attractions and destinations in Dubai to the global audience. This constant endeavor is implemented by the Office around the year through organizing international events, official tours for delegations and international media gatherings at these destinations.â€
Other meetings with tourism bodies
During the 4 days ATM exhibition, Laila Suhail also met with Imsany Hasrat, Deputy Director, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board and Abdul Rahman Shaari, Regional Director of the Board (Africa, West and South Asia), to discuss and share experiences and views on the latest in global festival industry. She similarly met with Jason Ong, the Regional Director for Singapore Tourism.
“These meetings are just an initial step into establishing communication channels with leading tourism destinations, and to exchange ideas and point of views on the global festival industry in general, in addition to innovative ideas on mutual promotional strategies. We feel that the current challenging era of event and festival organizing should be more about integrating rather than competing,†said Suhail.
ATM a huge success for DSS 2009
The Dubai Summer Surprises stand at 2009 ATM witnessed a lot of interest from regional and global travel companies and visitors as it unveiled its 2009 communication theme as “Surprising Dubaiâ€, revealing yet another exciting calendar of events through a press conference on the second day of the exhibition. DSS 2009 will begin on June 19 this year and go on for 65 days till August 14.
For more information please contact
Naser Hakim on 04-2020548, nhakeem@mydsf.ae
Or
Suhaib Abdullakutty on 04-2020579, sabdulla@mydsf.ae
