Hotels gear up for higher occupancy during DSF

Hotels in Dubai are gearing up for the 17th edition of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), offering their best deals in a bid to woo thousands of visitors, who will be flocking here for the 32-day period that begins tomorrow. The festival on an average welcomes around 3.5 million tourists each year — drawn by the many attractive discounts offered for a wide range of well-known local and global brands, an exciting calendar of family entertainment events and activities, and many amazing shopping-linked raffle prizes. As this year\'s event also coincides with school holidays, tourism traffic from the other GCC countries is expected to rise significantly. \"Anticipating higher occupancy levels during DSF 2012, participating hotels have come out with numerous offers to entice visitors to absorb the enriching experience of shopping in Dubai including special packages, discounted room rates, a slew of entertaining activities, and much more,\" a spokesperson for the DSF said. Dubai hotels enjoyed high occupancy rates of up to 100 per cent during DSF 2011, and leading experts in Dubai\'s hospitality industry have predicted yet another a huge boost to occupancy figures during this year\'s shopping extravaganza, which is being held under the slogan \"Dubai at its best\" in line with the traditional festival theme of ‘One world, One family, One festival\'. Bigger picture Burkhard Wolter, General Manager of the Kempinski Hotels & Residences, Palm Jumeirah, said that he expected DSF 2012 to draw more visitors, especially those from GCC countries. However, he said that one should look at the bigger picture, and that was of DSF being a visionary concept that had achieved the stature of an international festival and a tourism icon. Wolter said that Kempinski Hotel and Residences Palm Jumeirah was a hotel for families and that its location on the Palm offered guests a chance to enjoy a unique location. \"We expect no less than 300 occupied rooms per night during the shopping festival,\" said a confident Wolter. Hotel Pullman Dubai, Mall of the Emirates, is offering a Shopping Getaway package together with entertainment activities for all guests. Leonard Theng, the hotel\'s director of sales and marketing, pointed out that DSF was very important to the hotel because of its direct access to the shopping mall. \"We predict it will be quite a busy period again for us. As DSF coincides with the GCC school holiday period, we expect occupancy rates of around 80 per cent in Dubai.\" Tom Lord, General Manager of the InterContinental Dubai Festival City and Crowne Plaza Hotel Dubai Festival City, said that DSF was important to the hotel. \"We are also part of a mixed-used development here at Dubai Festival City and our hotels are directly connected to Festival Centre, which houses over 600 retail and dining outlets. DSF is a key event in the city\'s annual calendar\". Craig Senior, Regional Director of Sales and Marketing for the Meydan Hotel, said their hotels have always experienced an increase in business during the DSF.