Perfumes, cigarettes, gold top items bought by travellers at Dubai Duty Free last year

Dubai Duty Free (DDF) recorded annual sales of Dh3.563 billion ($976 million) in 2021, an increase of 40 per cent compared to the previous year.

It recorded over nine million sales transactions throughout the year, an average of 25,000 sales transactions per day, while over 26 million units of merchandise were sold.

“Overall, it has been a very good year for the operation despite the challenges of the pandemic,” said Colm McLoughlin, executive vice-chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free.

The top five selling categories for the year included perfumes followed by liquor, cigarettes and tobacco, gold and electronics.

Sales of perfumes reached Dh698 million ($191 million) and accounted for 19.59 per cent of the total annual sales. Liquor in second place recorded sales of Dh617 million ($169 million) and accounted for 17 per cent of total annual sales.

Cigarettes and tobacco, the third best-selling category had Dh348 million ($95 million) in sales and contributed 10 per cent towards total revenue. Gold came in fourth place with sales amounting to Dh290 million ($79.5 million) and accounted for eight per cent of total revenue while electronics came in fifth place with sales of Dh278 million ($76 million) and accounted for 7.8 per cent of total annual sales.

Online sales accounted for five per cent of the overall sales tally for 2021 and reached Dh177 million ($48 million).

Meanwhile, sales in Departures reached Dh2.9 billion ($818 million) and represented 84 per cent of total annual sales, while Arrivals sales reached Dh373 million ($102 million), representing 10 per cent of total annual sales.

“We have continued to develop our retail offer in all the Terminals and that included the opening of a Christian Dior boutique in Concourse A and B and a Louis Vuitton shop in Concourse B. We are now looking forward to the opening of a Cartier boutique in Concourse B and the reopening of the Chanel boutique in Concourse A in the first quarter of this year,” said McLoughlin.

-waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai