“Dubai Summer Surprises” during its career that spanned a quarter of a century, witnessed many developments year after year, to provide in each of its sessions distinctive, unique and exceptional experiences from shopping offers, concerts, entertainment activities and restaurant offers, in addition to prizes worth hundreds of millions of dirhams.
The first session of “Dubai Summer Surprises” was launched in 1998 with the aim of attracting tourists to the city, revitalizing markets and retail stores, and promoting business during the summer.
The 26th edition of this event – which started on June 29 and will continue until September 3 – offers a lot of entertainment activities, promotions and shopping over a period of 10 weeks.
Suhaila Ghobash, Executive Director of Events and Festivals at the Dubai Festivals and Retail Corporation – who has worked for 23 years in organizing “Dubai Summer Surprises” and started it as a volunteer – said that this festival is planned for several months before its launch to raise the level of events and activities presented during it, while work begins for the session. In the coming year, several months after the end of its activities, the work team begins planning for the next session, reviewing the opinions of the partners, and verifying that the audience of different nationalities and age groups, whether inside or outside the country, enjoys it.
She pointed out that prior to the launch of the event, promotional campaigns are being organized in all Arab Gulf countries to inform the target audience of the benefits, offers and experiences that they will receive when they come to Dubai.
Ghobash stated that the success achieved by the festival through a journey that spanned a quarter of a century came as a result of the prosperity that Dubai is witnessing in various fields, expressing her aspiration to continue presenting successful and advanced sessions of “Dubai Summer Surprises” over the next 25 years and to contribute to supporting the success of Dubai’s economy and for the festival to be An active part in achieving the goals of the Dubai Economic Agenda.
Ghobash added that organizing an event the size of “Dubai Summer Surprises” requires several months of planning and talks with the relevant authorities to provide the best distinctive experience for Dubai residents and visitors who are looking forward to amazing deals, food and beverage events, and enjoying entertainment activities at each of its sessions.
For his part, Mohammed Firas Erekat, Director of the Commercial Registration Department for the Retail Sector and Strategic Partnerships at the Dubai Festivals and Retail Corporation, said: “We provide many opportunities for cooperation and encourage retailers to participate in the distinctive promotions that we organize, and we are working on innovative ideas in cooperation with groups and brands in order to Developing its own offers and deals, which in turn contribute to enhancing the content of the festival’s promotions.”
He pointed to the cooperation with more than 35 shopping centers and hundreds of brands in Dubai annually to ensure that they offer various offers and raffles for residents and visitors who shop in the city during the surprises.
Erekat added, “We are working on the last weekend of the festival with hundreds of brands across the city to provide discounts of up to 90 percent.. We are witnessing a huge increase in retail sales during this holiday, which we call peak shopping.”
He pointed to the increase in promotional offers that are organized during the festival, as the “12-hour big discounts” witnessed great demand in the past, and shoppers obtained discounts of up to 90 percent at the shopping centers of the “Majid Al Futtaim Group” during the festival period, noting the institution’s keenness to Learn about the trends in this sector and the preferences of consumers with the aim of achieving the desired goals, strengthening the retail sector, and raising Dubai’s position as one of the preferred shopping destinations.
Erekat said: “We conduct a survey to find out the opinions of followers after the promotions that we implement in cooperation with our partners in order to monitor the increase in spending and the level of satisfaction of merchants, shoppers and consumers, as we witness an increase in spending and turnout annually.”
In turn, Abdullah Al Amiri, Director of Promotional Campaigns, Raffles and Strategic Alliances Department at the Dubai Festivals and Retail Corporation, who supervises the organization of this annual event, expressed his happiness with the success achieved by the retail sector over the past years with each session of the “Dubai Summer Surprises”.
Al-Amiri recalled the discussions that took place in 1997 to organize the event, in light of the Dubai government’s focus at that time on creating an event that extends throughout the summer, providing entertainment activities and shopping experiences for the city’s residents and visitors.
He pointed out that all government institutions in Dubai participated in organizing and supervising its various activities over the summer months in the past years, noting that raffles and prizes are among the main activities that focus on when planning the festival.
He added that the first session of the festival witnessed the granting of many prizes, such as mobile phones and cash prizes, to the winners, and then the prizes developed over the years to include valuable prizes such as gold and rewarding cash prizes, whose value amounted to millions of dirhams, in addition to cars and apartments, as the value of prizes over the past twenty-five years exceeded hundreds. Millions of dirhams.
He pointed out that cars have become one of the most prizes won by the participants in the festival’s draws, where the winners of the car prizes can exchange them for sums of money if they wish. He pointed out that the draws are organized in several ways in cooperation with a number of companies in Dubai, including a group of gas stations such as “ ENOC” and shopping centers throughout the emirate, gold and diamond dealers.
Al-Amiri stated that the raffle has evolved thanks to the developments witnessed by “Dubai Summer Surprises”, and that shoppers can participate in the raffles via the Internet, which has contributed to an increase in the number of people participating in the event who prefer to buy their needs remotely.
Over the past 25 years, Al Amiri has been a witness to the special moments in which shoppers win prizes and walk away with cash, gold, car keys and other prizes from residents or visitors of Dubai.
The “Dubai Summer Surprises” is held with the support of the official sponsor, the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah “MasterCard”, in addition to many strategic partners, including shopping malls affiliated to Al-Futtaim Group “Dubai Festival City Mall and Festival Plaza”, Al Seef, Al Zarooni Group “Mercato Mall”, Abdul Wahed Al Rostamani Group, Bluewaters and City Walk, Emirates Airlines, Emirates National Oil Company “ENOC”, Etisalat, Majid Al Futtaim “Emirates Mall, City Center Mirdif, City Center Deira” and Al Nakheel shopping centers “Ibn Battuta Mall, Al Nakheel Mall, Dragon Mart 2, Palm West Beach, The View”, The Beach and The Outlet Village.
