Business & Finance Club - DUBAI : Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) 2010, a shopping and leisure extravaganza, has raked in more than Dh550 million ($150 million) in sales in the first four weeks, said a group of participating malls.

The 13th edition of DSS, which started on June 17, ran up to August 7, with shopping promotions in over 6000 retail outlets and entertainment events across participating shopping malls in Dubai.

Dubai Shopping Malls Group (DSMG) said that shoppers spent heavily on bargains and a chance to win one of the BMW 3 series sedans through a popular purchase linked raffle draw “shop and win” organised by DSMG in collaboration with DSS.

Inbound travel has also substantially picked up during DSS, with airline carries including state-owned Emirates reporting a 68 per cent to 90 per cent load factor in the first half of DSS, boosted by various travel offers and promotions.

With inbound travelers increasing, the hospitality sector likewise saw a positive 15 per cent increase in demand for rooms across budget, mid-range and premium hotels. Hotel managers said there has also been a marked increase in bookings from across the GCC countries.

Modhesh World, the largest indoor theme park in the region also recorded a 5 per cent increase in gate sales, with Modhesh and various edutainment offers delighting more than 260,000 visitors in the first four weeks of this year’s summer celebrations.

“The positive results reported by our partners and stakeholders point to another successful year for DSS, proving once again that Dubai is a popular summer destination, with its fantastic retail, leisure, entertainment and promotional offers,” said Laila Suhail, chief executive at Dubai Events and Promotions Establishment (Depe), organisers of DSS.

“Last year, DSS attracted 2.2 million visitors with consumer spending reaching Dh3.37 billion in a span of 65 days.”

“This year, with the event being organised for only 52 days, we are looking to sustain the same momentum or surpass it and looking at statistics from the first half of this 13th edition, we are well on our way to achieving this,” Suhail added.