Mall of the Emirates and Deira City Centre in Dubai are offering free parking at the two malls over the weekends (Fridays and Saturdays), while extending free parking during the weekdays to four hours.

The free trial period of the system has also been extended until October 3.

The new development is based on an extensive feedback programme during a free trial period lasting a month.

The introduction of the trial to mall visitors began on August 10. Since then, Majid Al Futtaim Group, who own Mall of the Emirates and Deira City Centre, has collected vast amounts of feedback.

“The very purpose of our free trial period was to inform our customers of our parking plans, assess its use and receive their feedback,” said Fareed Abdelrahman, vice-president, divisional asset management for Majid Al Futtaim Properties.

“With the parking management system, our aim was to deter park and ride Metro users and make sure that convenient parking is available for all our visitors. Many of our customers agreed with us and said that there was a need for a system to ensure parking is available for them when they visit the malls once the Metro starts operation.”

“One point that did emerge was that more people would use the Metro on weekdays to commute to work and genuine mall visitors would need spaces for longer periods at the weekends,” Abdelrahman added.

“Another request was to raise the number of free parking hours during the week for all customers. This is exactly the sort of feedback that we were asking for and we have responded accordingly. The trial period has been a great success for all concerned.”

Starting Sunday, October 4, the first four hours of parking will be free on weekdays. Parking beyond four hours on weekdays will be charged at the rate of Dh20 ($5.44) for every additional hour for the next three hours.

Parking at both malls will be free on weekends.

The initial figures were based on industry research, which shows that on an average 70 per cent of shoppers spend three hours or less in malls on weekdays.

On weekdays, customers are urged to validate their parking tickets before they leave the malls. The validated tickets then need to be inserted into the machine at the exit barrier. Courtesy parking crews continue to be stationed around both the malls to help customers adapt to the new system. – TradeArabia News Service