Greater spending by local residents has offset the impact of falling tourist numbers on Dubai's retail sector, a senior executive at Majid Al Futtaim, owner of one of the city's biggest shopping malls, said on Monday.

Dubai's lavish malls boast attractions including an indoor ski slope, skydiving wind tunnel and one of the world's largest aquarium tanks. These have helped draw visitors to the emirate, while tourist spending in turn supports the retail sector.

The number of visitors rose 8.2 per cent to 13.2 million last year, but they are widely expected to fall this year due to a strong dollar, weak currencies in Europe and Russia and the impact of lower oil prices on consumer confidence in some of Dubai's tourist markets. The dirham is pegged to the dollar.

The government has not yet announced 2015 first-half tourist figures.

"Dubai has seen a softening of tourist numbers," Michael Cesarz, chief executive of privately-held Majid Al Futtaim's shopping malls division, told Reuters at the opening of a Dh1 billion ($272.27 million) expansion of the company's Mall of the Emirates.

"At Mall of the Emirates, we've compensated for the drop in tourists with more local customers coming here. We don't see that much loss in footfall," said Cesarz. "Our assets are orientated to tourists, but we're not dependent on them. We see increasing sales."

He declined to give figures for tourists, sales or footfall.

Dubai's wholesale, retail and repair services sector is the emirate's largest, generating revenue of Dh23.91 billion in the first quarter of 2015. This was up three per cent on the prior-year period to provide 27 per cent of Dubai's gross domestic product and be the largest contributor to the economy.

Majid Al Futtaim owns about 1 million sq m of retail space across the Middle East, of which more than 60 per cent is in the United Arab Emirates. It aims to double this amount by 2020 and is building two malls in Egypt, two in Oman and is also seeking to expand into Saudi Arabia, Cesarz said.

He ruled out his division going public, saying plans were in place to fund its expansion but declined to provide further details.-Reuters