Dubai Duty Free Reports New Sales Record in 2024

Dubai Duty Free (DDF), which is responsible for duty-free selling operations at Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport, has ended 2024 on a bang by recording a new annual sales record of $2.164 billion, with a major surge in sales happening towards the end of the year.

The month of December set a record with sales of $225.19 million, a 2% increase over same month of last year. The sales were fuelled by Dubai Duty Free’s 41^st anniversary celebrations when the operation offered a 25% discount on 20 December, and which resulted in a shopping spree of $16.436 million during the 24-hour period.

This performance followed strong sales in November 2024 which was also higher than the same month last year. Confectionery was the best-performing category in December with sales up 29.46% over December 2023.

DDF Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi said that they had a terrific November and December and the last week in December was particularly good with the staff really pushing hard to get beyond 2023’s record year.

The operation recorded over 20.733 million sales transactions throughout the year, an average of 56,649 sales transactions per day, while a staggering 55.137 million units of merchandise were sold. It is also estimated that over 13.7 million customers shopped in DDF’s Arrivals and Departures stores in 2024.

The top five selling categories for the year were perfumes followed by liquor, cigarettes & tobacco, gold and electronics. With sales of $411 million, perfumes contributed 19% of total sales and retained its position once again as the top selling category with growth of 9.79% over last year.

Sales of liquor reached $289 million and accounted for 13% of the total annual sales with a decline of 6.6% over last year. Meanwhile, cigarettes & tobacco recorded sales of $221 million and contributed 10% towards total revenue with growth of 8.27% over last year.

Gold came in fourth place with sales amounting to $213 million and accounted for 10% of total revenue and just higher last year. Electronics came in fifth place with sales of $149million and accounted for 7% of total annual sales but dropped 13% compared to last year. Online sales topped $54 million accounting for 2.5% of the overall sales tally for 2024.

Sales in departures across the operation was $1.951 billion representing 90% of total annual sales and grew 0.84% over last year, while Arrivals sales totalled $147 million, representing 6.8% of total annual sales and declined 12.21% over last year.

Looking in 2025 and Beyond

Looking ahead, DDF will continue to enhance its retail operation which includes the completion of the last phase of renovations in the Arrival shops in the three terminals with construction to be finished in early 2025.

This will be followed by major refurbishment in Concourse B of the Luxury Watches and Electronics shops that will span 2025 and 2026.

Also in 2025, Concourse A will see a major renovation of the Perfumes and Cosmetics shops on the East and West sides, renovation of the Gifts from Dubai offer and the opening of three new boutiques for major Fashion brands. Due to the extent of work in Concourse A, the renovation is expected to start in early 2025 and finish by late 2026.