The UAE is fully prepared to host Expo 2020 Dubai. “As part of the preparations, as many as 72 working teams from federal and local authorities completed a joint strategic exercise to simulate Expo in October. And we can say that the UAE is 100 per cent ready for the World’s Greatest Event,” His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, tweeted in April 2021.

On Wednesday, June 23, 2021, Sheikh Mohammed marked the 100-day countdown to the event, scheduled to start on October 1, 2021. “100 days to go for Expo 2020 Dubai, the world’s largest cultural event. 100 days to go for the gathering of 192 nations in Dubai in the biggest global event since the outset of the pandemic,” tweeted Sheikh Mohammed. “50,000 employees have set up 192 pavilions and 30,000 volunteers are set for the mega event,” he noted.

The six-month-long event runs until March 31, 2022. More than 200 entities have signed up for the event, including 190 countries, multilateral organisations, businesses and educational institutions. Construction work on the project continued at pace during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Expo 2020 Dubai will provide the space for the largest and most inclusive cultural and knowledge exchange in the world,” said Sheikh Mohammed. He noted that “Expo 2020 Dubai will pave the roadmap for key economic, development and cultural trends of the post-COVID-19 era.”

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Expo 2020 Dubai

“Our success in hosting the world’s largest cultural event reflects the power of human solidarity in overcoming the pandemic.”

He added: “The global community is preparing for a new stage of collaboration by harnessing science and technology to combat the pandemic. Expo 2020 Dubai provides the platform for sharing knowledge and innovations.”

“People from every corner of the globe are welcome to join the once-in-a-lifetime inspiring and enlightening experience that pays testament to human creativity. We will meet at Expo 2020 Dubai.”

– Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

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“Through Expo 2020 Dubai, the UAE is bridging cultures and galvanising efforts and aspirations towards creating a better future for everyone.”

“People from every corner of the globe are welcome to join the once-in-a-lifetime inspiring and enlightening experience that pays testament to human creativity. We will meet at Expo 2020 Dubai.”

“Expo 2020 Dubai is gearing up to help shape a post-pandemic world and create a better future for all. The delay also allows the World Expo to focus on a collective desire for new thinking to identify solutions to some of the greatest challenges of our time,” the BIE said.

Expo 2020 Dubai has retained its name, despite the one-year postponement to 2021, the organising committee said. It will remain “committed to hosting an exceptional event that will celebrate humanity’s resilience, creativity, culture and innovation – including major technological advances in the fields of medicine and science.”

For the first time in the history of the World Expo, every participating country will have its own pavilion. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, it was estimated that 70 per cent of visitors to the Expo 2020 Dubai will travel to the event from other countries and Emirates airline’s network of 158 destinations in 86 countries will help facilitate that mobility and support the expo in attracting 25 million visits through its marketing channels.

Of the 192 countries that have confirmed their participation in Expo 2020, Emirates will help facilitate and offer connectivity with direct flights to 67 participating countries.  Expo 2020 Dubai welcomed more than 100,000 visitors to experience ‘Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion’ as part of its preview tours which ran from January until April 2021.

During the preview, several health and safety practices – from social distancing and capacity controls to on-site rapid testing for staff and vendors – were incorporated across the site. According to an onsite survey, visitors ranked health and safety precautions above eight on a scale of one to nine, “highlighting expo’s readiness to safely host the world when it opens its doors”, the organisers said.

The Expo 2020 venue

The legacy of the Expo 2020 site will be sustainability, with a focus on ensuring that the expo’s plans are fully aligned with the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan unveiled earlier this year. To put the scale of the expo into perspective, the site itself is 4.4 square kilometres in size, equivalent to more than 600 soccer fields. It has dedicated highway exits and public transport lines and even includes a 45,000 square feet exhibition centre with halls capable of hosting 20,000 people at a time. The centrepiece of the project is Al Wasl Plaza, a dome as wide as two Airbus A380s side-by-side that boasts the largest 360-degree projection surface in the world.

A total of 4.7 million square metres of earth had to be moved before construction could begin at the 438-hectare site and over 5,000 cubic metres of concrete was poured every week and an additional 500 tonnes of steel brought in every seven days to place the foundations for the site’s three themed districts. Expo 2020 organisers awarded 1,200 contracts valued at Dh2 billion to various contractors and developers in 2016 alone.

Additionally, it also awarded 47 new construction contracts in 2017 for Dh11 billion. These districts are integral to the site, converging at its centrepiece – the 150-metre wide, 69-metre tall domed Al Wasl Plaza – and housing about 200 country-pavilions. There are separate themed pavilions, including the UAE Pavilion, modelled on the wings of a falcon; tiered trefoil-shaped Mobility Pavilion and Sustainability Pavilion.

In total, two square kilometres of the site forms the Expo’s event area while the remaining land is dedicated to supporting facilities like the Expo 2020 Village, warehousing, logistics, transport, hotels and a public park. Authorities made the Expo site capable of producing enough solar power to cater for 50 per cent of its power needs.

By the start of 2020, the number of countries announcing their participation in the Expo as pavilions reached 190. The organisers have promised over 200 dining experiences, including 34 ‘never seen’ before food concepts.

Route 2020 is a new Dubai Metro route that has been specially designed for the event. It is a 15 kilometres extension to the Metro Red Line and will connect Jebel Ali Station to the new Expo 2020 Station, with seven stations in between. This will help move visitors to and from the Expo 2020 site much faster and will ensure further strengthening of the economy. The station is capable of transporting 44,000 passengers per hour.

The mobile app launch will help prepare your visit to Expo 2020. And by the time you arrive, it will be packed with cutting-edge features to make your experience of The World’s Greatest Show even more memorable. There will be apps to be downloaded from Google Play and Apple App Store from the launch day. The official app of Expo 2020 Dubai will be launched in September 2021.

The Mobile App will help create a personal schedule of events, attractions and parades to see and manage SmartQ reservations and buy Expo 2020 tickets. There will be an interactive, GPS-enabled map with step-by-step directions and one can record the journeys in a Digital Passport. Visitors to the Expo will be able to see Al Wasl Opera which occupies a prime spot among the diverse range of installations and artistic creations. There will be the world’s largest 360-degree projection surface. It will be undoubtedly once-in-a-lifetime learning and cultural experience.