DUBAI, 19 June — Four years ago in 1998, when Dubai launched something called Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) at the hottest time of the year, there were doubts about the project’s success. But Dubai Summer Surprises proved itself the most successful summer festival in the Middle East. With 10 different surprises for 10 weeks (70 days) Dubai became — and remains — the summer capital of fun.

Why hold the festival in the summer? Chief Executive Officer Saeed Al-Nabouda explained that there were three reasons: To boost the economy at the leanest time of the year by keeping tourism alive and well. To give visiting families an unforgettable summer holiday and experience. To give children a chance to learn while having fun.

The DSS focus was on indoor entertainment at climate-controlled venues. DSS is all about indoor fun and discounted holiday packages.

Its activities are divided into weekly themes, or surprises. Each week, all the shopping malls and other indoor venues host activities based on each week’s theme — such as flowers, food, ice — turning themselves into live entertainment, music, dancing, competitions and workshops. The participating malls have created a summer promotion with a daily prize of 10,000 dirhams and a grand prize of 1 million dirhams.

There are live shows, cartoon characters and entertainment brought to Dubai from all over the world. Among the shows: Sindbad Adventures on Ice, Murray-Raine Puppets as well as live carnivals from different countries plus unique indoor entertainment activities all over Dubai. These shows will be hosted in malls or at four specially designed attraction venues that will be open throughout the 70 days of the festival. The four locations have one thing in common and that is that the activities take place inside. The locations are:

Modhesh Fun City: Open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., it enables young visitors to spend several hours or days enjoying activities and entertainment shows all day long.

Children’s City: The biggest children’s center in the Middle East, Children’s City is a complete educational and entertainment venue for kids.

Eskimo Land: Where you can experience living at the North Pole while you are in the middle of the Arabian desert.

Aqua Park: The most popular place for children, where water is the remedy for the summer’s boiling temperatures.

Very soon, DSS 2002 will begin with activities and events that target young visitors and families. There will be more than 250 activities spread across Dubai throughout the 70 days.

Beginning tomorrow, more than 20 shopping malls, 66 hotels and apartment hotels will participate in the festival. Offering “Dubai for Free” packages, hotels give visitors one free additional stay for every 3 days plus discounted prices beginning at $25. For children under 12, the stay is free, plus free transportation from airport to hotel and back to airport.

Although DSS focuses mainly on families and children, teenagers will surely enjoy the Sports and Water Surprises. As for adults, there are the shopping malls, promotions, different lectures, seminars and workshops which are scheduled for the 10-week period. People can choose what they like from a range of topics ranging from health to education to relationships to religion. Another of DSS’s pleasant surprises is the 100,00-dirham prize for the first family visiting Dubai. This happens at the airport every Wednesday night — starting tonight — for the duration of the festival.

The DSS team along with the entire private and government sectors are all working together in close coordination to make this a success. In DSS 2001 the sales were 50 percent higher than the previous year and exceeded 1.11 billion dirhams with 1.96 million visitors. This year’s budget is 65 million dirhams and an income of 1.16 billion dirhams is expected.