Dubai to host delayed Expo this year
Dubai, UAE – Dubai is sticking to its schedule of hosting the delayed Expo 2020 this year, despite the coronavirus having shutdown global travel, Reem al Hashimi, director general of Expo 2020 Dubai, said in an exclusive interview to Bloomberg Television.
She said the government is confident vaccination programmes will be successful enough to open the Expo on October 1, 2021, adding, ‘it’s still possible that 25mn people will visit the city for the six-month event.’
“It is just not realistic to change your target number yet because your factors are super fluid. We’ve rolled out vaccinations in the UAE very aggressively, but so have many other countries around the world,” Reem said.
“We’re hopeful that come October, things should be better than where we were when we had to postpone the event last April,” she added.
According to a press release, on the opening of a sustainability pavilion on January 22, Reem said this will be ‘teaser to the domestic audience’ as well as the international one about Dubai’s idea of sustainability.
With its opening later this year fast approaching, Expo 2020 Dubai is inviting visitors to be among the first to explore Terra – the sustainability pavilion and its surrounding public spaces, offering a glimpse of what’s to come when the next World Expo begins on October 1, 2021. Visitors will be able to explore Terra, which sets an international example for sustainable building design and is built to be net-zero for both energy and water.