The Dubai Ruler marked the 30-day countdown to the world’s greatest show by reviewing the preparations and giving it an all-clear. “I reviewed the final preparations for Expo Dubai, set to begin 30 days from now on October 1, 2021,” His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, tweeted.
“Our teams are ready and pavilions are complete for the world’s largest event since the outset of pandemic. The UAE is looking forward to welcoming people from 191 countries”
– Sheikh Mohammed
“Our teams are ready and pavilions are complete for the world’s largest event since the outset of pandemic. The UAE is looking forward to welcoming people from 191 countries,” said Sheikh Mohammed.
The six-month-long event runs until March 31, 2022. More than 200 entities have signed up for the event. These include 191 countries, multilateral organisations, businesses and educational institutions.
Dubai has promised that Expo 2020 will aim to dazzle the world and will be the best and most exceptional edition of the 168-year-old event. “We promise people from all over the world an unprecedented Expo. The six months of the event will go down in history for the ideas and inventions that will benefit humanity for years to come,” Sheikh Mohammed tweeted on September 1, 2021.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, joined the VP in welcoming the world to Dubai for the expo. “One month from today, the UAE will proudly host Expo 2020 Dubai, one of the world’s largest cultural events. Delivered under the guidance of my brother Mohammed bin Rashid, the event builds upon our nation’s longstanding history as a facilitator of cultural dialogue & exchange,” tweeted Sheikh Mohamed.
An Exceptional Expo
After winning the bid in November 2013, Dubai spent an estimated $33 billion to prepare for the 33rd edition of the World Exposition, which began in 1851 in London. The theme for the Expo 2020 Dubai is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’. Tickets for the event are now on sale. A new line of Dubai Metro has begun exclusively for the Expo site.
Expo 2020 Dubai has retained its name, despite the one-year postponement to 2021. 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 190+ 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.
Be the first to write a comment.
Your feedback
