Westfield enjoys strong luxury footfall during Eid celebrations
Westfield has reported strong luxury footfall at its two London shopping centres during Eid celebrations last weekend.
The company said the celebrations marking the end of Ramadan have historically sparked a retail surge from Middle Eastern tourists visiting the centres. Last year, the Westfield London shopping centre saw a 17.6% increase in spend from Middle Eastern visitors while Westfield Stratford reported growth of 12.6%.
During this year’s Eid, a number of luxury retailers at the centres have witnessed strong uplifts in footfall with Belstaff seeing a surge of 36% and Whistles, Hugo Boos and Prada reporting rises of 20%, 47% and 16% respectively.
Westfield’s chief marketing officer, Myf Ryan, said: “From a retail perspective Ramadan marks an incredibly busy time, as Middle Eastern visitors come to spend the festive period in the capital, as well as the London Muslim communities we welcome on a regular basis at both Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City.
“2016 represented a bumper year for international spend from the Middle East with, 18% of Westfield London’s luxury spend from within The Village coming from UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait alone.
“In fact, 23% of our whole Westfield London tourist spend came from these four Middle Eastern markets. As we collate the 2017 findings, we’re pleased to announce an initial increase in footfall and sales from some of our key luxury retailers who celebrated Eid at Westfield.”
Westfield’s in-centre activations and campaigns were supported by an international marketing campaign to raise awareness amongst tourists heading to London to celebrate Eid.
Premium personalisation services were also on offer such as Jimmy Choo’s Made-To-Order service which included shoes and accessories designed and handmade to the customer’s specification, and Georg Jensen’s Arabic personalisation service. Louis Vuitton is also hosting a personal hot stamping event from 25 June for two weeks.
