Argentina, Poland and the United States vied for the world’s fair, and one winner emerged.
PARIS — Minnesota lost its bid to host what would have been the first world’s fair on U.S. soil since 1984 when the organization that oversees the events voted Wednesday to make Argentina’s capital the site of one planned for 2022-2023.
The Trump administration has sought to boost American interest in world’s fairs, international displays of ingenuity that in the past brought the world the Eiffel Tower, Seattle’s Space Needle and the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio.
But in its latest vote, members of the Bureau of International Expositions, based in Paris, picked Buenos Aires over rivals Bloomington, Minn., and Poland’s third-largest city, Lodz, to host a specialized WorldExpo.
Argentinians at the vote literally jumped for joy as the result was announced — and then started handing out white-and-blue soccer T-shirts with star Argentinian player Lionel Messi’s nameon them.
It will be the first expo in Latin America under the auspices of the BIE, which began operations in 1931.
Full-scale World Expos that last six months are now held every five years, while three-month expos devoted to specific themes take place in intervening years.
The U.S. delegation was clearly disappointed, but the government was undeterred. The State Department said it “looks forward to working with other U.S. cities and states interested in bidding to host a future World’s Fair.”
Minnesota had proposed a health-focused expo to capitalize on the state’s world-class medical institutions and medical device makers.
The last world’s fair in the U.S. was in New Orleans.
The Polish delegation looked especially grim after the defeat of its bid, on the theme of how post-industrial cities can reinvent themselves.
Argentina’s organizers hope the event will attract at least 6 million visitors.
Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is set to host the next full World Expo in 2020. A specialized expo focused on energy was held this year in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.