Curtains rang down on the 40-day BankMuscat Shopping Festival with reverberating excitement as Alla Barhan Al Saman won the grand prize of RO 10,000 in the fifth and concluding weekly draw held at Qurum City Centre. Adding thrill to the festival, Mohammed Bader Al Obaidani and Ahmed Hamed Al Ismaily received keys for two Infiniti cars presented by City Centre. Several BankMuscat cardholders also won high value prizes, including RO 1000 cash prizes, holiday packages, economy class tickets to Oman Air destinations, smart phones and gift vouchers at the mega event.
The festival coinciding with the 41st National Day celebrations was supported by Visa, Omantel, Oman Air and Travel Point, bringing together prominent hyper markets, shopping malls, retail outlets, travel and tours agencies, hotels, restaurants and much more.
Spreading the festival cheer, BankMuscat had lined up five weekly draws offering more than 200 prizes, including 25 cash prizes of RO 1000 each. The highlight of the final draw was the mega cash prize of RO 10,000, besides the two Infiniti cars offered by City Centre to BankMuscat cardholders for shopping at participating City Centre outlets.
Tariq Atiq, Head – Cards and e-Payment, said: “We are greatly encouraged by the strong response to the BankMuscat Shopping Festival conceived as a unique shopping, leisure and entertainment event. It was a great example of the fresh and innovative approach of BankMuscat to promote the e-Payment culture in Oman by making payments by cards both a habit and preference, thereby lending a strong support to the government’s e-Governance initiative. The festival was a big encouragement for customers to pay by cards, underscoring the fact that payment by cards is both convenient and secure.”
Tariq Atiq added: “The success of the festival is attributable to the participation of 400 brand partners and 2000 outlets spread across the Sultanate. Targeted at over 1.4 million cardholders of BankMuscat, the festival was unprecedented in its scope with attractive weekly prizes, special offers and discounts at all participating outlets. BankMuscat is grateful to all key partners and participants for contributing to the success of the festival. With continued support from partners, the scope of the festival will be expanded further in the coming years to make it a high point in the social calendar of Oman.”
The mechanism for the weekly draw was that for every card transaction worth RO 5, customers had a chance to win. Each transaction was equal to one chance, thus the more they used their BankMuscat card, the better their chances to win.
Major hyper markets and shopping malls, including stand-alone premium outlets as well as traditional outlets (tailoring, traditional clothing, traditional gift shops etc.), restaurants, travel and tour agencies participated in the festival, providing special value offers and discounts. The festival discount was available for BankMuscat cardholders only. Customers were eligible to win prizes when using BankMuscat debit/credit card in participating outlets. Entries for the draw were captured electronically. A dedicated website www.bmsf.om featured detailed information of the festival.