Filipina wins car in daily Gitex Shopper draw

Raffles, giveaways and prizes are part of the appeal for visitors to Gitex Shopper 2013.

DUBAI // Shoppers from the UAE and overseas are winning prizes ranging from cars to tablet computers at Gitex Shopper 2013’s daily draws and contests.

Vanessa Vidal was the first winner of an Opel Astra car after her Dh30 entry ticket was drawn on Saturday.

“I’m very excited about it but my seven-year-old daughter is even more thrilled,” said Mrs Vidal, 37, a Filipina who works with a computer company in Dubai.

“We went to see if there were any good deals for a television we want to buy and I won a car.

“I’m excited because it is my first car. We have a family car that my husband and I share when we go to work.

“I was really shocked when they called to say I had left something at Gitex, and that it was a car and keys.

“At first I didn’t believe it because I didn’t think you really win anything in these lucky draws.”

With every Visit and Win coupon on each entry ticket, visitors have the chance to win Intel tablets and enter the raffle for the daily Astra draw.

Mrs Vidal has been in several raffles in Dubai but Gitex marks her first win.

She plans to drive her new car daily from her Bur Dubai home to her office in Internet City when winners are handed their prizes next week.

Another visitor, Walter Edmund Ritson from South Africa, believes he is on a lucky streak.

Mr Edmund won a bicycle in a contest in Cape Town two weeks ago and then a tablet on Monday at Gitex.

“I’ve never won anything before ,” said Mr Ritson, 25, a businessman who said he would be giving the computer to a friend.

“When I go to expos, sure, I put my name down for the lucky draws but I never win. So this was a surprise.

“I found Gitex brilliant and want to come back next year. I just wish they also had some new inventions on display apart from televisions, computers and phones.”

More than 200,000 people are expected to visit Gitex Shopper 2013, which is open until Saturday from 11am to 11pm.

Millions of dirhams worth of prizes are on offer at the show with raffles, scratch cards, gift vouchers and giveaways.