IMAGINE by Dubai Festival City Mall has witnessed the number of Filipino visitors increase, especially after being recognized at The Filipino Times Awards 2019.
The Guinness record-breaking light show, which has bagged the 2019 The Filipino Times Awards Innovative Entertainment of the Year recognition, is known for contributing to the UAE’ tourism that has a footfall of as high as 16.73 million in Dubai alone—surpassing the projection made by the United Nations World Tourism Organization by one percent on the global tourism growth forecast.
Biggest 121st Philippine Independence Light Show in the world
At the 121st Philippine Independence day, many Filipinos were delighted when IMAGINE by DFC released a show, in partnership with The Filipino Times, showcasing the Philippines’ finest to the UAE’s pool of over 200 nationalities.
“For the 121st Philippine Independence Day, Dubai Festival City Mall created a special IMAGINE Philippine National Day Show. This was specially curated to showcase the Filipino culture, iconic landmarks and people who bring pride to Philippines. There was large projections of famous Filipinos; Catriona Gray and Manny Pacquiao. We were very excited to see that Manny Pacquiao himself shared the photos of the IMAGINE Show on his official Facebook page,” said Koh.
Koh furthered that the invitation spread through The Filipino Times’ news portal helped more Filipinos engage with the mall and the light show as a whole, with a notable increase in footfall following the event.
“The 121st Philippine Independence Day IMAGINE Show had a strong effect on footfall. Overall, we saw a +5% increase when compared to the previous year. Whilst the majority of that audience was from the Filipino community, we saw various nationalities coming together and witnessing this important event and wanting to be part of the celebrations. This is really the vision of what Dubai Festival City Mall aims to achieve with major National Day events as an opportunity to bring people together and celebrate what was the Year of Tolerance in 2019,” shared Koh.
But while IMAGINE by DFC has already proven its fame, Maria Kathleen Koh, Production Manager for Entertainment and Nessa Pacquiao, Assistant Manager for Marketing, both share that they have noticed a huge boost in the number of Filipinos—one of the largest communities in the UAE—who visited their mall after winning The Filipino Times Awards 2019.
“This makes IMAGINE and Dubai Festival City Mall renowned to Filipinos and we hope that this means that the Filipino community wish to visit Dubai Festival City Mall more often and experience IMAGINE on all special holidays and occasions in the Dubai Calendar. On behalf of Dubai Festival City Mall, we are grateful that the Filipino Times had acknowledged IMAGINE and it is an honor for us to be nominated and to receive this special award,” said Pacquiao.
“Most of our team who operates the show every night consist of Filipinos which makes us more proud. We are very happy and excited that our IMAGINE show was nominated as “Preferred Entertainment Destination of the Year”. We are humbled and proud that our show had been recognized in UAE,” added Koh.
Record-breaking light shows
IMAGINE by Dubai Festival City Mall’s innovative light shows also took centerstage in the internationally renowned list of Guinness World Records, holding two distinctions including the “World’s Largest Water Screen Projection” and “World’s Largest Permanent Projection Mapping” as the team harnesses the power of light, laser, water, fire and sound, to bring a unique sensory experience for its viewers.
“With the support of our senior leaders Steven Cleaver (Director-Shopping Centres), Wesam Aldora (Mall Manager), Vanessa Hinton (GM Entertainment-Marketing) and Gordon Kirk (Sr.Operations Manager-Entertainment) we are responsible for creating and managing IMAGINE – our two-time record breaking laser light and water show,” shares Koh.
Unleashing Filipino creativity
With the opening of the new decade, Pacquiao assures that Filipinos and other residents in the UAE will soon witness more interesting light shows and activations that would definitely make Filipinos proud of the light show that has stunned the nation.
“To all the hard working Filipinos in the UAE we would like to invite you visit Dubai Festival City Mall and to watch our IMAGINE shows that plays every night from sunset every half hour. We are currently having the largest LEGO Festival and Asian village that will run till 14th of March 2020. This show is for all ages. We will continue to create IMAGINE shows for your entertainment,” said Pacquiao.
