Dubai luxury sales 'incomparable' to last year - BinHendi

Sales during this year?s Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) festival are ?incomparable? to last year?s results, one of the region?s leading luxury retailers has said.

?The strong buying that used to happen is not there anymore,? said MohiDin BinHendi, president of BinHendi Enterprises, which owns and operates upmarket stores including Hugo Boss, Brioni and Porsche Design.

DSS, the annual event organised by the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF), is an important time of year for the city?s retailers, as schools and universities close for the holidays and soaring temperatures keep people from going outside.But despite offering bigger discounts earlier in the season this year, most retailers have suffered revenue drops of 20 to 30 percent.

?There is no comparison between this summer and last summer, the whole economy is different,? BinHendi said.

Predicting when sales would rebound is impossible, he added.

?Things are definitely going to improve, but how and when I really don?t know? There have been a few improvements, but not a significant improvement."

Earlier this year BinHendi Enterprises shuttered BinHendi Avenue, a luxury retail development that was part of Majid Al Futtaim?s Deira City Centre in Dubai, citing growing competition in the luxury goods market from other, newer malls.

Retailers in Dubai have been more affected by the international recession than companies in other parts of the region due to their reliance on tourism from countries like the UK, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Iran.