Roksolana Pirtko, CEO of “Roksolana” shopping mall and “Spartak” shopping and leisure centre, claims that MENA countries are setting the standards for retail spaces of the next decade. She notes that shopping centres in the MENA region are full-scale urban hubs featuring leisure, education, sports and advanced gastronomy, as well as being technologically ahead of Europe.
Roksolana Pyrtko, CEO of shopping malls “Roxolana” and “Spartak”, lawyer and commercial real estate expert, in new blog stated that the Middle East is currently ahead of Europe in the development of shopping centres. Roksolana Pyrtko emphasises that it is the MENA countries that are setting the standards for the next decade and shaping a new model of retail spaces, reports UNIAN.
According to her, shopping centres in MENA have long ceased to be just places for shopping and have turned into full-fledged urban hubs – featuring leisure, education, sports, cultural activities and a developed gastronomy sector. Roksolana Pyrtko emphasises that local developers have the opportunity to design such projects “from scratch”, without historical constraints, which allows for the creation of large-scale and more flexible concepts.
Roxolana Pyrtko names technological advancement as an important advantage of the region. In GCC countries, smart parking, interactive navigation, digital services and traffic analytics have long become the standard of the operating model, whereas in Europe similar solutions are being implemented much more slowly.
Roksolana Pyrtko believes that Europe and Ukraine should already be actively shifting from the “shopping destination” model to the “spending time” centre model by investing in leisure infrastructure, digital services and technological solutions that enhance the visitor experience.
At the same time, Ukraine has a significant advantage in this transition: fewer historical constraints, greater flexibility among developers, and a readiness among Ukrainian consumers to quickly adopt new formats. This creates an environment where modern shopping centre concepts can be implemented faster than in most European cities, allowing us to set trends rather than catch up with them.
