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Champagne’s future markets: #7 the UAE
7. United Arab Emirates
At first glance this is not an obvious choice by any means, chiefly because it is a Muslim country.
However, the UAE is already a market of over 1.3m bottles (1,386,966 to be exact which is more than either China or Russia although this is unlikely to be the case for much longer) and grew 18% over 2011.
As the CIVC’s Thibault le Mailloux explains: “The UAE has grown. It’s a Muslim country but there’s a growing tourist industry, luxury hotel and hospitality scene and international community.”
Add in a thriving and fabulous travel retail industry which caters to prestige and excess in equal measure and it becomes clear that the UAE has more to it than meets the eye, even if it will be a market where true appreciation is never more than skin deep.
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How true are the figures of Champagne sales in UAE which makes UAE the 7th future market? Huge amounts of alcohol that gets imported into the country is only destined for re-export to countries like China, Russia, Africa and other countries. Has anyone, before publishing the figures, cross-checked the authenticity of the figures? In this case, the saying – everything that glitters is NOT gold, could be very true. Tourism industry has drastically changed in the country, so has the on-premise drinking habits. I dont deny the fact that there are people who might spend on life-style products like Champagne in the 5 star hotels where the price is inflated atleast 4 times but such mighty spends are not common any more. The travel retail industry is growing big-time but again, all this figure isn’t from the duty free sales. So, what I am saying is, it is true that there is more than meets the eye in the UAE and as yet I dont see any reason to celebrate because alcohol is still a very closed and controlled chapter. It is needed to do a reality check here.