Summer in Dubai is no surprise: It is always hot. Despite unbearable temperatures outdoors, and a downturn in foot traffic indoors, tourism did boost summer sales for gold, jewelry, and electronics in 2006. Dubai Summer Surprises shopping festival --which runs June 21 through September 1-- allowed local jewelers to sell goods during what is traditionally the slow season, said KP Baiju, general manager of Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group.

Some 200 jewelry shops participated in the 2006 Dubai Summer Surprises festival and increased their sales from summer season 2005, Baiju said. The festival, founded in 1998, promotes Dubai as a family vacation destination and includes raffles and special events each week of the run. The festival is sponsored by the Dubai Shopping Malls Group, Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group, Emarat Petroleum, and the Grand Dubai Summer Surprises Raffle.

The Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group gave away weekly prizes of gold, Solitaire diamonds, jewelry, a BMW 3-series car, travel tickets, and Plasma television sets during summer 2006. For every $68 (AED250) spent on jewelry goods, customers increased their chances of winning Emirates airline tickets, Mont Blanc gift sets, 12-months of Carrefour shopping vouchers, Sony Bravia LCD TV, Guy Laroche watches, and Saks Fifth Avenue gift vouchers.

Shoppers who dropped $700 or so (AED2,500) on goods earned a chance to win-back half their cash spend with scratch-and-play drawings. MasterCard holders earned an extra coupon for their AED250 or more worth of purchases the organizers said.

The Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group offers a "mega final" drawing on September 1, the final day of the festival, which gives away one luxury apartment from Dubai's International City section.