The Dubai Shopping Festival? Help us make Guuki better. Be the first one to edit this topic!
If there is such a thing as an international shopping Mecca, it is in Dubai. The next annual pilgrimage has been schedule tentatively for 01 Jan 2010 - 28 Feb 2010.It's called the Dubai Shopping Festival. Since 1996 the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has held the annual month-long event. The festival annually draws about three million people to Dubai to shop… As part of a larger approach to developing the city as the tourist capital of the Middle East, Dubai is trying hard to rival Hong Kong and Singapore as a shop-til-you-drop destination. They've made shopping largely tax free and allowed merchants to import products from other countries with very few duties or tariffs. The result is that everything from gold chains to ipods, Gucci purses to Persian rugs can be found in the malls and suoqs of Dubai at rock bottom prices. Whether you're looking for a new Ferrari or a new fly rod, chances are good that it's cheaper in Dubai. The city has at least 25 malls. Then there are the souqs, the tradition open air markets around the city. Shopping is not the only attraction of the festival. According to one source, the event is spiced up each year with "international theatre and street performances, fashion shows, nightly fireworks and laser shows, prize draws (with booty such as Rolls Royces and gold), film festivals, children's events and handicraft shows." Did I mention the "Carpet Oasis?" Over 100,000 carpets along with exhibits on how carpets are made the cultures of the carpet making world. And at night you can chill at the Dubai Jazz Fest or just watch the fireworks shows… Have time to kill? When the Shopping Festival is over you can hang around for the Dubai Tennis Open. The Open starts February 20 and runs through March 4. Like the DSF, the Open has been around since 1996. Tennis not your things? There's always the Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament in March. Or the Dubai World Cup – the richest horse race in the world – is March 25. Dubai seems bent on becoming the tourist destination. The Emirate has more than doubled its coast line by creating artificial islands and reclaiming land from the Persian Gulf. And according to a recent issue of Time Magazine, Dubai is planning to build "Hydropolis, the world's first undersea hotel, situated at a depth of 20 m and about 300 m from the shoreline."Comments
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