The United Arab Emirates is determined to become a leading destination for shoppers and sports enthusiasts. Siddarth Nanthur, senior project manager for IEC, which organizes the Sportex Middle East trade fair due to be held at the Dubai World Trade Center next Nov. 3-5, notes that 4 million tourists visited Dubai and the UAE in 2007, and that tourists made up 50 percent of the shoppers in their malls and 30 percent of their retail sales.
Total retail sales are expected to reach more than $8 billion by the end of 2009 in Dubai and at its 25-plus international malls, all of which feature many sports stores. Foreign shoppers come from other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council – such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar – but also from the U.K., Germany, Russia, China and India.
IEC is an investor in Dubai Sports City, a $2 billion project in the works that will include malls, sports stadiums, golf courses and luxury residences. It will cover more than 4.6 million square meters, and its four stadiums will hold from 8,000 to 25,000 people. It will be the home of the first Manchester United football school outside Europe, an Ernie Els golf course, a Butch Harmon golf academy, a David Lyons tennis stadium and the headquarters of the International Cricket Council.
Dubai was chosen by the International Swimming Association for the short-course world championship in 2010. Another member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Qatar, has put in a bid to be the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Emirates Airline has signed to be FIFA’s partner from 2007 to 2014, for a sum of $195 million, the largest sponsorship in the history of UAE or of FIFA.
