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Rescheduled Dubai Expo hopes to attract 25 million visits

13 Apr 2021

Dubai is gearing up to host the World Expo – a year after it was originally supposed to be held. Held every five years, expos see hundreds of countries using pavilions to show off the latest in architecture and technology. Before the pandemic forced the event to be postponed, organisers had expected 25 million visits during the course of the six-month international fair. It will now run from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. However, despite restrictions on travel, and the recent lockdowns in some parts of Europe, Dubai Expo 2020 Director General Reem Al Hashimy said they are holding on to the pre-pandemic target. “The world has gone through these galactical shifts over the last year but now with vaccines being rolled out, we believe that situation will settle by October. We believe the situation will be far more positive by then.” It is an optimistic forecast for an event that relies on tourism, when most of the world has cut down on international travel. But the various in-person conferences and trade shows held in the city over the last few months have made organisers more hopeful. Organisers are also expecting the vaccination rates to gather pace globally during the summer, which would give people the confidence to start making international trips again. The Dubai Expo is being billed as the biggest event to be held in the Arab world. For the UAE, the showpiece event comes at a time when it is trying to recover from one of its worst recessions in five decades. Last year, the economy contracted by 6.6% even as the Government announced a series of reforms to attract investment and help businesses. Some of those steps have started to show results with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) upgrading the growth outlook for the UAE to 3.1% for 2021. The authorities are pinning their hopes on the World Expo to attract tourists in large numbers that would help accelerate economic recovery. Billions of dollars have been poured into the project since the UAE won the bid to organise the international fair in 2013.   (BBC)


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