Mega event unfazed by Lebanon crisis

Dubai: Organisers of this year's Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) will look back on a turbulent summer, when the region was rocked by the brutal attacks on Lebanon.

Officials admit retail spending was negatively affected by recent political instability as shopping money was diverted toward charity donations and people's mentalities were not suited to making expensive purchases.

But they say Beirut's isolation from foreign visitors resulted in Dubai emerging as an alternative holiday destination, boosting visitor numbers to DSS and compensating for a dip in individual spending.

"Both DSS and DSF have been held during previous tense political periods such as the Iraq war and the graph has never been negatively affected," said Saeed Al Naboudah, CEO of DSS.

"People have been giving very generously to charity during the attacks on Lebanon and this may have cut money from retail spending. But on the other hand, many people travel to Lebanon via Dubai, so the effect of people extending their stay in Dubai will have boosted DSS visitor numbers."

Al Naboudah said he could not give specific information on retail spending and visitor numbers until official figures are released in October. But he said this year's summer deals promotions, aimed directly at increasing spending in local malls, will have boosted retail spending figures.

"I am absolutely positive that there has been an improvement on last year's DSS," he said.

This year's DSS was the ninth installment of the initiative and included new activity weeks such as Ice Surprises Week. Al Naboudah admitted the task of keeping the event fresh is a massive challenge, but argued that DSS 2006 has not lacked creativity.

"We are talking about an initiative which lasts 72 days and includes 300 events. It is impossible for each event to be completely different from the previous year, but there have been numerous new surprises included throughout the whole DSS," he said.

"It would not be fair to see a small segment of the entire event and say there is nothing new. If people have some thoughts on DSS we would love to hear from them. But with full respect to people's opinions I can only take comments genuinely if they have seen the event in its totality."

Al Naboudah stressed that next year's DSS, the 10th anniversary of the event, will involve extra effort to provide refreshing entertainment, but denied that ideas have been held back from this year's event.

"Next year will surpass all the previous events in terms of scale and amount of new surprises," he said. "But we take every edition as the ultimate edition and always give it our best."

DSS ends Friday with a grand raffle at Modesh Fun City in which prizes worth Dh5 million will be given away. DSS organisers said they will only accept new coupons at Modesh Fun City and not at shopping malls.