Ramadan Rush was first coined in 2011 by the British media and embraced by the retail sector as it became noticeable that the UK was attracting huge numbers of wealthy

Middle Eastern The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

visitors around the time of

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

, which happened to fall on 1 August on this year. In 2012 the

New West End Company New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

, the management company for retailers in

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...

Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...

and

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

explained; ‘The Ramadan Rush is a total phenomenon... It is worth millions to us (the UK) — last year there was about £120 million spent in the pre-Ramadan rush by Middle Eastern visitors, but it grows every single year. We expect it to be up ten per cent this year (2013)'. Many Bond Street and

Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

retailers have catered for their luxury customers by opening later, hiring

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

speaking staff, and providing tax refund services including

Global Blue Global Blue is a tourism shopping tax refund company headquartered in Nyon, Switzerland. The company is best known for tax-free shopping, a VAT/ GST refund product and also operates in dynamic currency conversion, marketing services, point-of ...

and

Premier Tax Free Planet (formerly known as Fintrax and Premier Tax Free), is a financial services company, specializing in multicurrency payments, credit card processing, and tax-free VAT refunds management for tourists. Planet provides its services to inter ...

. As Ramadan dates change each year, the term 'Ramadan Rush' is also associated with the term ' Supercar Season' which occurs in July and August as wealthy Middle Eastern nationalities arrive in the UK to escape the heat of the Gulf States, taking their

supercars A supercar, also known as an exotic car, is a street-legal sports car with race track-like power, speed, and handling, plus a certain subjective ''cachet'' linked to pedigree and/or exclusivity. The term 'supercar' is frequently used for th ...

with them.

References

{{Ramadan Retailing in the United Kingdom Ramadan Retailing in London

See also

References