1. World’s largest shopping and entertainment destination celebrates two key milestones
2. Dubai’s largest candy store, Candylicious is the 1000th store
3. Record 1,000,000 visitors to The Dubai Mall over the week of Eid holidays
The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination, celebrates the achievement of two major milestones – the opening of its 1,000th retail outlet with Candylicious, a new candy store concept to Dubai; and a record footfall of over 1 million visitors over the week during the recent Eid holiday.
The Dubai Mall had earlier marked global retail history with the single largest mall opening of 600 stores in November 2008, many of them Middle East debuts or flagship stores of global brands. Since the opening day, The Dubai Mall has been progressively unveiling new and concept stores and attracting an increasing number of visitors each month. The recent holiday week of Eid attracted a record footfall with an astonishing 1 million visitors, adding to the festivities of the mall’s entertainment and lifestyle offerings.
Mr Nasser Rafi, Chief Executive Officer, Emaar Malls Group, described the opening of the 1,000th outlet as a landmark achievement boosting retail and tourism for Dubai. “The Dubai Mall is changing the retail landscape globally with a record number of stores – 1,000, now open under a single roof. The retail sector is one of the key pillars of Dubai’s economy and The Dubai Mall is adding to its differential by strategically offering a diverse and international retail mix that continues to attract a corresponding record number of visitors to the mall.â€
He added: “Over the week of Eid holidays alone The Dubai Mall welcomed over 1 million visitors, a testament that The Dubai Mall is the city’s prime leisure and entertainment destination of choice for residents and tourists.â€
Newly opened stores at The Dubai Mall are diverse, covering fashion to food & beverage. The 1000th store, Candylicious, is a new concept to Dubai showcasing a delectable array of sweets and candies from around the world. Other new store openings in recent weeks include luxury fashion retailers Oscar De La Renta and Dior, clothing and accessories stores Aeropostale, Un 1 Deux 2 Trois 3, Shoemart and Etam Lingerie and children’s fashion store Guess Kids.
Visitors to The Dubai Mall will have an even greater selection of dining offers with the opening of; Ping Pong Dim Sum and Japengo Café both on the waterfront promenade; and Nordsee Express on the Lower Ground Café Court.
The mall’s leisure components continue to be a stellar attraction for visitors. These include Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo with over 33,000 aquatic animals; an Olympic-sized Dubai Ice Rink; the region’s first SEGA Republic and Dubai’s largest megaplex, Reel Cinemas. KidZania®, a children’s edutainment centre, will open shortly. Visitors can also enjoy the spectacular display of The Dubai Fountain, the world’s tallest performing fountain that lines the Waterfront Promenade. The mall has 14,000 parking spaces for the convenience of visitors.
About The Dubai Mall:
The Dubai Mall is the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination spread over a total area of 12 million sq ft. With a total internal floor area of 5.9 million sq ft, the mall has 3.77 million sq ft of gross leasable space which hosts 1,200 retail stores including over 160 food and beverage outlets in food courts that have a capacity to seat 3,000. The Dubai Mall offers an unparalleled retail mix combined with world-class dining, entertainment and leisure attractions. The leisure attractions include The Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, which features the largest acrylic viewing panel in the world and a walk-through tunnel. The Olympic-sized Dubai Ice-Rink is another key leisure attraction and a destination for skating enthusiasts.
Fashion Avenue, a 440,000 sq ft fashion precinct dedicated to haute couture, positions the mall as the fashion capital of the region; while the Gold Souk is a sprawling gold and jewellery retail showcase with over 200 stores. The strong family entertainment theme includes KidZania®, an innovative children’s ‘edu-tainment’ concept that is being introduced to the region for the first time; SEGA Republic, a 76,000 sq ft high adrenaline indoor theme park; The Grove, an indoor-outdoor streetscape with fully retractable roof, and the 22-screen Reel Cinemas with a total capacity of up to 2,800 seats. For the convenience of visitors, the mall offers over 14,000 car parking spaces.
About Emaar Malls Group LLC:
Emaar Malls Group LLC, is the retail and shopping mall subsidiary of Emaar Properties PJSC. Emaar has announced investments in shopping malls of over US$4 billion (AED 15 billion) with 10 million sq ft of retail property in operation or under development in the emerging markets of the Middle East, North Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and South Asia and is on target to become one of the largest developers of shopping malls in the world. At the forefront of these developments is the flagship The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest mall, in the heart of the Downtown Burj Dubai. Emaar Malls Group also operates two other malls in Dubai; Souk Al Bahar, an Arabesque shopping and entertainment development on The Old Town Island, and Dubai Marina Mall, a lifestyle shopping mall for residents of the Dubai Marina community. Internationally, Emaar Malls Group is actively planning or developing shopping centres in Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia and continues to drive the company’s expansion strategy on a global scale.
