Dubai Mall, the greatest show on Earth? Certainly the greatest show when it comes to malls. At least on what it has offered and the record breaking number of visitors it has seen since it opened in 2008.
No other mall or single destination has done this.
Impressive that it continues to carry on for 15 years, holding on to the top spot. And in many ways spectacular and entertaining.
The tagline and term “the greatest show on Earth”has been associated with the great circuses of the past. Especially the spectacular and extravagant American ones. And for the right reasons. A mix of unique talents and sometimes performances that exceed form and function that it was intended for.
For Dubai Mall, the best description comes from a book about the Mall published in 2017 – “Sand to spectacle”.
This post is not just about a large mall, its shops or its visitors. It’s more about an experience. There is a story behind the show.
Vision to execution
The story is about ambition, vision, scale and execution.
Dubai is a city built on a desert and when the decision was made to build the Mall in 2004, it hada local population of 200,000 Emirati nationals. The rest were expatriates and foreign workers.
On completion in 2008, it had 1000 shops. It did not take long to realise it could do more and serve more visitors.
People wanted more of the mall. The developer and the same architects felt the same. In 2015, with further development it went up to 1,200 shops. It now has 1, 350 shops. Try visiting 50 shops at a go and one realises how immense the place is.
It is not the largest but……
In terms of gross leasable area (GLA) it is not even in the in the top ten for a mall. It is now somewhere around the 26th position. However the land size occupied makes it 1st or 2nd with 23kms of shop frontage.
What is not disputed is that it is most visited mall in the World by a mile. It is also one of the most visited retail and lifestyle destination. And this is where we separate wheat from the chaff.
It receives 100 million visitors a year. 10 years ago in 2013, it was also No.1 with 75 millions visitors . At that time it had just surpassed New York City, which long held the top spot of most visited location in the World.
Those that came after
Since Dubai Mall’s opening in 2008, more than a dozen bigger malls in terms of leasable area have opened in China, the Philippines, Iran, Thailand and Malaysia. 15 years later no mall, big or small, new or old have surpassed Dubai Mall in visitor numbers.
Iran Mall, size wise is the largest. But it a mix of commercial , cultural and social multi-purpose complex that includes a sizeable library and a convention centre. It has about 700 stores and visitors numbers are not revealed.
Ghost mall
The South China Mall in Dongguan, China the largest mall in the World when it opened in 2005. It ended up a dead or ghost mall of planned 2,350 stores and a vacancy rate of 90% that lasted over 10 years.
It was built in a former farmland and at a marginal end of the city. Little connection to main roads and transport hubs. It’s catchment pool comprised of low paid migrant workers with little disposable income. Much of it had to be repatriated to support their families in their villages and towns back home.
It took more than 15 years to recover and now reaching occupancy rate exceeding 90%. A change of ownership and two rounds of extensive renovations helped move it forward.
Why the greatest show on Earth?
Firstly the numbers don’t lie. Dubai Mall continues to to attract locals, people from the Gulf countries and international visitors in record numbers year after year since it opened in 2005.
Secondly items sold, brands and their stores are readily available in major cities back in the countries of international visitors. The only argument is that many stores especially high end luxury stores are not in one convenient zone in one place such as Fashion Avenue in Dubai Mall.
26th place in terms of gross leasable area (GLA) also tells a story. There was no desire to cramp so many shops in a mall. Space and lots of space marks Dubai Mall.
My sense is that it is a combination of factors that make it the greatest show on Earth. I had mentioned earlier in the post about vision and ambition. These combination of factors are key.
Mall location
Dubai Mall has an exceptional geographic advantage on two counts. It sits at the cross-roads of World aviation routes. The same advantage that Emirates and Qatar Airways capitalised on and made themselves World class players.
Dubai Mall is also located in the heart of downtown Dubai and easily accessible transport wise. The World’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa is next to the Mall and connected to it. Though it was not there when Mall was already breaking records.
Mall design
Next is a an interesting mystery. Why did Dubai commission a Singapore architecture firm to design the mall. After all much of Dubai city landscape is dotted with buildings designed by award winning architects based in the West. And it is indeed an impressive landscape. The Mall is also a massive project. Arguably centrepiece of the state owned developer Emaar’s portfolio.
DP Architects of Singapore clearly delivered. The layout is great, has a flow, wide passageways, escalators in the right places and location of the incredible aquarium is spot on.
The mall is highly functional and somewhat intuitive to the visitor. You can to some extent see well ahead, up and down levels and make your way to something that catches your eye easily.
And more importantly the design remains current. Designed as a town square and it did end up as one – a place to meet, to shop, to dine and to be entertained..
The book “Sand to spectacle – Dubai Mall” edited by Oscar Riera Ojeda and published in 2017 details the design process that DP architects took. And both Emaar and DP kept their faith in each other thru the years and extensions.
Mall curatorship
The massive aquarium with 270 degree walk-thru with 33,000 marine creatures from 140 marine species, the Olympic sized skating rink, the music fountain, the unusual and eye-catching waterfall and later the Burj Khalifa set the tone. And they still do.
It is also the first mall that I noticed that the anchor tenants Bloomsbury and Galleries Lafayette are dwarfed by the sheer number of appealing shops. So not exactly the anchor tenants.
Curating the retail mix is where the magic lies. 150 restaurants and cafes complement the shops and takes you on an Epicurean journey. Classy and a gourmet’s delight. Interestingly no pretentious award winning ones.
And it is the appropriately curated retail content and mix that carries the repeat and retention value. The force created is what makes it the most successful mall in the World. And it will continue to be for years.
Now for the end of the show
My very first visit was in 2017. At that time, I found it big and after visiting some stores, visited the attractions but it was already overwhelming.
The aquarium, the fountain, the waterfall and the World’s tallest building, all of which were impressive, I then took refuge in a bookstore as a respite. Kinokuniya has been a favourite for years and Adelaide did not have one.
Its only in subsequent visits that I began to grasp its scale and what it had to offer. And how it is offered. The more I visited the more impressed I was. It was no surprise that it remains no. 1.
Just to note that I have not gone into details into some of great things in the Mall as it will lead to a lengthy post. An example is the Aquarium which is built and manned by an Australian company. Its a amazing piece of work and still mesmerises nearly every visitor. Or about the people who run the show.