Dubai, Jan. 9th, 2006 (WAM)-- The current round of Dubai Shopping Festival has been deferred to the next round, in mourning of the late Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, organisers have announced.
Festival Coordinator Saeed Al Naboudah said all the activities had been deferred to the next round, scheduled for the 20th of December, 2006.
Al Naboudeh announced, however, that the prescribed discounts on purchases of this year's festival will remain valid up to the 4th of February, 2006.
09 January, 2006
DSF cancelled
Dubai Shopping Festival has been completely cancelled this year
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6 comments:
I learnt this before any newspaper reported this.Kudos for prompt reporting.
I think this is a good decision- a sign of respect to the creator of modern dubai by shunning galore and festivities in the period of mourning.
what rounds are there? knock-out fights between women over the latest discounted prada handbag?
Is this really the right thing to do? To cancel anything and everything is one way to show honor and respect. But to do anything that will have a negative economic impact has to be weighed in the balance. Is there any question that a total cancellation of DSF won't have a major economic impact? I think not, but if it is just going to have a one-off impact then I say no harm done.
But the impact may be more than one-off. It may send a signal that Dubai is unpredictable. This could impact future DSF events and Dubai's overall reputation.
The point is balance. Dubai has to make a statement that we respect our rulers--who have done so much to make Dubai what it is. Internationally, everyone will understand and appreciate this. But it has to avoid sending the message that due to unforeseen events this or that may get cancelled.
I say postpone DSF and tone it down, but don't cancel it. I'm sure the surviving rulers debated this. Unfortunately, those who advocated a complete cancellation won out over those who would have preferred only a postponement.
The deed has been done and it will I'm sure send out some undesireable signals. The rulers I hope will choose differently when the next unforseen event occurs, and give more priority to the economic goals they have so successfully managed to meet till now.
When everything was 'up in the air' a few days ago, the DSF website just shut down and linked you straight to Dubai tv website, which had an announcement in Arabic only. For visitors coming from overseas who might have been wondering what the status was, it must have been highly frustrating to find that DSF themselves could not even put up their own announcement in English and Arabic stating what the situation was.....
..
some things
will
never
change.
I sit corrected. When we first heard about Sh Maktoum's untimely demise, we thought 'what about the ShopFest'? Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be completely cancelled. Delayed maybe, but cancelled outright? Never! Dubai just doesn't do stuff like that. Hmmm.
I suspect someone has a slippery slope fear and sees a tradeoff between respect for successors and the degree of respect shown by cancelling dsf.
RE the story cg gives us and cg's bottomline (comment above) it's no wonder that visitors were flocking to Secret Dubai desperate for some real information.
Where was it that I read that that dsfvendors are offering 70% discounts.
In other news, the Al Ain air show goes on.
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