Dubai Duty Free records the highest sales in its history for the month of January

Dubai Duty Free announced the highest sales in its history for the month of January, amounting to 858.21 million dirhams ($235 million), an increase of 18.53% compared to the same period last year.

Thus, January 2026 ranks third on the list of the best performing months in terms of sales volume in the market’s history, after December 2025, which recorded sales of 922.77 million dirhams ($252.81 million), and November 2025, with sales amounting to 876.56 million dirhams ($240.16 million).

According to a press release issued today, the highest sales during the month were recorded on January 31, at a value of 35.6 million dirhams.

Ramesh Kidambi, CEO of Dubai Duty Free, said: “This strong start at the beginning of 2026, recording our best performance ever during January, reinforces our optimism for a promising year.”

Many major commodities recorded remarkable growth, led by gold jewelry, which achieved an increase of 45.74%, with sales amounting to 104 million dirhams. Fashion came in second place with a growth of 36.68%, with sales approaching 82 million dirhams, while electronics sales increased by 36.61% after recording 65 million dirhams. As for precious jewelry sales, they achieved the highest growth rate among the categories by 69.51%, with sales amounting to 28 million dirhams.

Other goods also achieved strong gains, including perfumes, whose sales rose by 13.61%, reaching 147 million dirhams, and candy and sweets, whose sales jumped 15.35%, recording 80.69 million dirhams, and cosmetics, an increase of 7.67% after recording 40 million dirhams, and wristwatch sales increased by 30.94%, reaching 33 million dirhams, and luxury food recorded Ready-made items grew by 8.36%, recording 27.77 million dirhams.

Dubai chocolate sales at Dubai Duty Free recorded 36 million dirhams in January 2026, with 83 tons sold, compared to 24 million dirhams and 42 tons in January 2025.

Fashion store sales in halls (A) and (B) increased by 56%, with a record average daily sales of 3.4 million dirhams, while the average transaction value achieved a record high of 8,820 dirhams.

In terms of geographic regions for duty free customers, Europe and Russia topped the list of highest sales growth, with increases of 35% and 36%, respectively, followed by Africa, with a remarkable increase of 29%, then the Americas, 22.5%, the Indian subcontinent, 11%, the Far East, 10.5%, and the Middle East, 5.3%.