Phillip Morris International (PMI) opened its first IQOS retail boutique outside of the duty free arena in the Middle in early October. The shop in the Dubai Mall in UAE carries the full assortment of IQOS products, including accessories, and also houses exclusive offerings and limited editions.
“We are proud to unveil the GCC’s first IQOS boutique today, which represents another pivotal step forward in our journey towards a smoke-free GCC ,” said Tarken Dermirbas, PMI’s Middle East vice president at virtual inauguration of the shop. “Despite these difficult circumstances, we stay firm in our commitment to present adult smokers, who would otherwise continue to smoke, with better, scientifically substantiated, alternatives to continued smoking.”
In December 2018, PMI previously opened the largest IQOS lounge in the world at Dubai International Airport
UAE legalized vaping and the sale of e-cigarettes in April 2019 and a slew of exhibitions and conferences on vape and e-cigarette exhibitions were immediately announced, all of which have been cancelled due to Covid-19. Quartz Media, organizers of the World Tobacco exhibitions globally, as of this writing, still plans to hold it initial World Vape Expo in Dubai in mid-January 2021. This show was postponed from a previous June 2020 launch.
PMI has launched IQOS in 57 markets worldwide to date and estimates that there are nearly 15 million IQOS users globally. As of June 2020, over 11.2 million adult smokers around the world have already stopped smoking and switched to IQOS, the company claims.