Dubai Mall ranked world's best for facilities, experience

Dubai Mall has been ranked higher than London's Regent Street, New York's Fifth Avenue and the Champs-Elysees in Paris in terms of the overall quality of its retail facilities and amenities, according to the latest Global Retail Destination Index 2016 from Savills, in partnership with The Retail Group.
The report measures the various retail attributes held by London's West End and compares them to six other leading cities: Dubai, New York, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Dubai Mall locations were based on their brand positioning in comparison to the key retail destinations in the West End. As a result, each strip of the mall - Star/Grand Atrium strip, Fashion Catwalk and Fashion Avenue - was treated like a 'street'.
"Dubai is forecast to report the strongest growth in retail sales over the next five years of the seven Global Cities examined, potentially challenging London's West End's current global position," the report says.
The top ranking Global Retail City from the analysis is New York. London's West End ranked second alongside Hong Kong, followed by Dubai.
According to the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2015, there were 14.3 million overnight visitors to Dubai last year, which commanded a total spend of $11.7 billion, an average of $819 spent per visitor. This was some way behind New York's average spend of $1,416. However, the number of overnight visitors to Dubai, between 2016-20, is expected to increase by 9.7 per cent.
Dubai Mall was the least expensive in terms of indicative prime total occupational costs as of fourth quarter of 2015 - prime rent per square feet $240; additional occupational costs per square feet $60; total occupational costs per square feet $300. This compared to the total occupational costs per square feet in New York's Fifth Avenue -- $3,900.
According to a survey response in the report, 88.4 per cent of people said Dubai has the best choice and quality of shops in the world.
While in the shopper experience, which was assessed via the location surveys focusing on those responses related to ease of shopping, connectivity, service levels and directional signage, Dubai outperformed London, Paris, Singapore and Milan.
Godchaux in Dubai is now perceived as a top global retail destination. "But this is only the tip of the iceberg as we now start seeing developers trying to improve the shopping experience not only for tourists as in the past 15 years, but also for residents. This trend of moving away from the 'bigger is better' approach, to more user and resident friendly retail developments, bringing a real city experience and European-style shopping to areas of Dubai similar to those found in London, Paris and Milan, is something that was much awaited by the market and that we see finally happening."
business@khaleejtimes.com