An important motivation for this post is a recent conversation with a colleague from office. She was eagerly awaiting the arrival of her family for a short holiday in Dubai. When I asked her how she planned to entertain them, her plans included visits to 4 malls around the place.
How much time do residents of Dubai spend in the malls? While I haven't seen any specific data, my guess is that on an average many people spend about 6 - 8 hours each week hopping across at least 2 malls.
Shopping malls in Dubai have been virtually converted into entertainment venues. In fact of late I've noticed that most malls have live entertainment every weekend. This includes various kind of performances by visiting artists like dancers, magicians, cultural artists etc.
Dubai has witnessed an unprecedented growth in the retail sector in recent years. This has prompted investors into putting up extravagant malls aimed at inspiring potential visitors. My friends abroad still cannot believe that, 'Mall of the Emirates' one of the recent developments, has in fact an artificial ski slope!!
The new malls to look forward to include Dubai Mall which has recently opened a part of the mall and Mall of Arabia, a new mall located at Dubailand.
5 comments:
I think that because of the heat during the summer, people simply choose to spend times in centrally air conditioned malls to socialize/eat/drink and shop all in the same place at the same time.
Big brother won't like my take on this whole mall 'phenomena' in Dubai and its real impact on businesses in Dubai... I see it in a new post coming up soon, I guess.
Malls, malls and more malls. What a breath of fresh air!
Its just like that everywere!
In summer, malls are a life saver. Complete time pass with friends on a weekend without sweating it out in the heat (unless you count that walk to and from the car). In winter, I hate the malls, they get replaced by long drives and trips to the beach.
But this is a huge contrast as compared to before where a trip to the mall was as common as me going to war...[which is like never!!! ;) ]
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