Millions of dollars of investment is going into United Arab Emirates’ events sector with the Dubai Expo 2020 just three years away.
Sanctioned by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the Expo will bring over 25 million attendees to the emirate and will be the first “mega event” to take place in the Middle East.
Dubai is aiming to inspire future generations and spark inspiration for ongoing innovation with the Expo, which will run for almost six months between 20 October 2020 and 10 April the following year. It will be located on a site of 438 hectares within the Dubai South District, adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport and convenient for international visitors stopping over on layovers.
Dubai Business Events (DBE) is planning to capitalise on the Expo to further grow the destination’s MICE industry. The event body said the hospitality sector was already boo
ming in Dubai, with hotel inventory reaching the 100,000-room milestone across 681 hotels recently.
At the forefront of Dubai’s development strategy has been the question of how to use Expo locations beyond the event itself.
As part of this priority, the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) is developing a large exhibition hall on the site of Expo 2020 which will have over 35,000m2 of floor area. This will be in addition to the 90,000m2 of existing conference and exhibition space at the DWTC’s main site.
The exhibition space will be part of a project called District 2020, designed to be the Expo’s legacy development with 65,000m2 of residential space and 135,000m2 of commercial space. It will include iconic structures such as Al Wasl Plaza, with a Sustainability Pavilion that will live on after Expo as a Science Centre, and the falcon-shaped United Arab Emirates Pavilion.
Together the facilities will be able to host business events of all sizes and purposes, from small intimate functions to large conferences of up to 10,000 people.
Director-general of Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau Reem Al Hash
imy said the emirate had set two clear objectives when it bid to host the event — to amaze the world with the Expo, and to build a lasting legacy with a “global destination that offers a new alternative for urban living”.
“[UAE Prime Minister] Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum instructed us to build a site for a permanent legacy and therefore we had to think of ways to capitalise on what was being built for Expo as well as for post-Expo,” Al Hashimy said last month as details of District 2020 were unveiled.
“We have created District 2020 to achieve that goal. It has been a key part of our planning from the very start, not just for our legacy team but for the entire Expo organisation.”
The architects behind Al Wasl Plaza are from Chicago-based consultancy Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill, whose design partner Gordon Gill said the aim had been to not only create an architectural landmark, but also a venue that could be used long after the six-month event.
“We want Al Wasl Plaza, with its cutting-edge design, to inspire not just our generation but many generations to come,” he said.
Dubai hopes that hosting Expo 2020 will build on the three million business event visitors who already attend events at the Dubai World Trade Centre, which contributes $5.7 billion in annual economic benefit to the city.
