Dubai: Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) has gone down as the best year for the yellow metal in the festival's history.

According to the World Gold Council, gold and jewellery sales during this time reached Dh1 billion ($272m), which is a 25 per cent increase over its initial estimate of Dh800 million.

This year DSF was probably the best time to dig gold. Firstly, the prices went down a bit during that period and that made the yellow metal a little bit more accessible. Secondly, the participating jewellers promoted gold in a big way and included raffle draws worth millions of dirhams.

Exciting deals coupled with the latest collections on offer, DSF became the season to buy jewellery. There were numerous promotions and chances to win from a small gold coin, to gold bars, kilos of gold each day, which added to the yellow fever.

The sales had increased considerably, both for jewellery and gold bars. As the market is developing the customers are showing a preference for customised and branded jewellery. This was very obvious during the DSF. According to a report, superior contemporary designs and combinations of gold with natural stones were the hot favourites of consumers. The twinkle and glimmer of the yellow metal combined with the intense colours of various stones and pearls was also a big draw, said a report.

At the beginning of the festival, the World Gold Council had pledged its full support to the industry. "As always, we remain committed to promoting gold during the much-awaited Dubai Shopping Festival. We extend full support to all associated with the gold industry in terms of marketing and promotion to make gold the best selling commodity during this year," said Moaz Barakat, managing director, World Gold Council.

"Dubai has earned the title of 'City of Gold', and I would like to say that the World Gold Council with its partners is leaving no stone unturned to develop the gold industry here in the UAE. Our aim is to make gold even more popular in the region. DSF is a good time for customers to buy gold so we didn't want to miss out on this opportunity and the results are here for all to see," he further added.