Dubai Duty Free, the biggest single travel retail operator in the world, has registered record sales of Dh7.885 billion ($2.16 billion) in 2023, which is a 24.39 percent rise compared to the previous year and a 6.40 percent rise compared to 2019, with December witnessing a record monthly sale of Dh807.6 million ($221 million), an 8.37 percent increase compared to 2022.

On December 20, Dubai Duty Free saw a shopping spree of Dh54.1 million ($14.8 million) on the back of a 25 percent discount offer as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations.

The operation recorded an average of 55,000 sales transactions per day, leading to over 20 million sales transactions throughout the year, with a staggering 55.2 million units of merchandise being sold.

The top five selling categories for the year were perfumes, liquor, gold, cigarettes, and electronics, with total sales of Dh1.366 billion, in which perfume accounted for 17 percent, liquor for 14 percent, gold for 10 percent, cigarettes and tobacco for 9.5 percent, and electronics for 8 percent, with sales of Dh1.366 billion, Dh1.130 billion, Dh773.506 million, Dh745.694 million, and Dh628 million, respectively.

Colm McLoughlin, executive vice chairman & CEO, said: “We are thrilled to have achieved our target sales for the year, a record month in December and a record year in 2023, which culminated with our celebrations of our milestone 40th anniversary.”

Online sales contributed about two per to the overall sales and reached Dh164 million ($45 million), while sales in departures across the operation reached Dh7.062 billion, representing 90 percent of total annual sales, and arrivals sales totaled Dh612 million, representing 8 percent of total annual sales.

India tops the source list with Dh973 million ($266 million) sales, followed by Russia with Dh759 million ($208 million), China with Dh564 million ($154 million), Saudi Arabia with Dh512 million ($140 million), and the UK is in fifth place with sales of Dh373 million ($102 million).

The total employee count of the operation grew proportionately to 5,500.