DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 2020
Connecting Minds, Creating the Future

Quick List Info

Dates Open - Postponed from the original dates in 2020-2021 due to the world Covid 19 pandemic. October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. Open 181 days. Site open from 10 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. (weekdays) 2:00 a.m. weekends.

Attendance - Estimated 25,000,000. 11 million from within the UAE, and 14 million tourists. First three months, through December 27, 2021, has seen 8,067,012 visitors.

International Participants - 192 nations and over 200 international participants.

Total Cost - Estimated AED 53.5 billion ($14.6 billion dollars.) Other estimates state $7 billion cost to Expo Authority.

Site Acreage - 428 hectares (1,082 acres).

Sanction and Type - Sanctioned by the Bureau of International Exhibitions on November 27, 2013 as a Registered World Exposition with Universal characteristics.

Ticket Cost - Tickets will be available on April 20, 2020 from the official website of the expo or sanctioned resellers. Due to world pandemic, there is a requirement to show that the visitor has had at least one vaccination or a negative test within 72 hours.

One Day Ticket, Adult - (AED 45, $12.99).
Premium One Day Ticket, Adult - (AED 350, $101.05.
One Day Ticket, 6-17 or Student - Free.
One Day Ticket, Under 6 or over 60 - Free.
Premium Full Season Pass - (AED 1750, $505.23).
Final Three Month Season Ticket - (AED 195) $56.20.

At one time, a Three Day Ticket was offered, but after the postponement, the site does not show that as an option. Check with Expo 2020 for the possibility of a multi-day pass.

Photo top center: Overview of the Expo 2020 Site, 2019. Courtesy Dubai 2020 Expo Authority. Column Top: Rendering of one vista on the Expo site.

Other Histories of World's Fairs to Check Out

• Quick List of All Expos
  
  1st World's Fair in History
  London 1851
  
  Philadelphia 1876
  
  Chicago 1893
  
  St. Louis 1904
  
  New York 1939-40
  
  New York 1964-65
  
  Montreal 1967
  
  Vancouver 1986
  
  Shanghai 2010
  
  Milan 2015
  
  Astana 2017
  
  

• For more info about the World's Fair Decision Model, development of the model, the study participants, etc. The development is currently being utilized for in-house publishing projects, but is not available for work-for-hire decuments or consulting.


• For More info about the Bureau of International Exhibitions - Sanctioning body for international exposition (world's fairs) headquartered in Paris, France.


• For more info about previous EXPOcheck reports.

Info About the Event

Officially registered in 2015, the ambitious expo in the United Arab Emirates will be the first world's fair held in the Middle East or Africa. Held under the auspices of the Paris based Bureau of International Expositions, this universal style fair, reminiscent of the largest fairs of the past such as the New York World's Fair in 1939-40 or more recent Shanghai World Expo 2010, will provide the visitor with experiences from nearly two hundred nations, full days of entertainment with over sixty live performances per day, hundreds of restaurants, and an immersion into the hospitality of a region most don't get the chance to visit.

Held under the main theme of "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future," Dubai's Expo 2020 will include theme pavilions and national pavilions that span the subjects of its three sub-themes; Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability. The Discover Pavilion of each of those themes will provide a basis for the pavilion experience at the exposition, while each nation will provide its own take on what those mean to them. From Russia to the United Kingdom, from the United States to Austria, you'll see what makes each nation of the world distinct, but notice the commonality between most. Eighty-one nations intend to build their own buildings with one hundred and eleven leasing space in pavilions provided by the Dubai 2020 expo authority. Eighty percent of the buildings are scheduled to remain as part of the District 2020 plan.

There will be plazas for entertainment, including the Al Forsan Park (2,500), the domed Al Wasi Plaza (8,000), and Jubilee Park (15,000). There will be places to eat, over 200, that will serve 300,000 meals per day.

Transportation to the site will include the Dubai Metro, with its own station capable of handling 36,000 people per hour. The site is located near the Al Maktoun International Airport in the Dubai South district.

Above photo. Dubai Exhibition Center at Expo 2020, 2019. Courtesy Dubai 2020 Expo Authority.

United States Pavilion
Designed by Fentress Architects, the USA Pavilion will be run in a private public partnership by the Pavilion USA 2020 group. The exhibits will be designed by George P. Johnson Experience Marketing. Lead sponsor of the pavilion will be Pepsi with the exhibit experience including a Hyperloop Ride Experience, a simulated high-speed transportation ride, by Virgin Hyperloop One. Frederick M. Bush, is the Chairman, and Gregory D. Houston, the CEO of Pavilion USA 2020.

USA Pavilion Funding Troubles Persist

As of November 19, 2019, the USA Pavilion had not begun construction, and was still awaiting their fundraising goal of $60 million from the private sector, and now public sector. The House of Representatives, departing from a 1990's policy of wanting private funding for USA pavilions, passed a bill aggreeing to match private funding, but the bill had not yet been passed by the Senate or signed by President Trump. For more information on the funding problem, visit the coverage in The National.

Official Website

For the official website, visit Expo 2020 Dubai

Upcoming World's Fairs past Dubai and Expo 2020 include the small recognized BIE exposition in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2023 (now postponed or cancelled) and Expo 2025, a registered BIE expo to be held in Osaka, Japan. Bidding for the next small recognized expo has begun for 2027-2028.

BIE Sanctioned

International Participants
Nations

As of April 2019, a total of 192 nations have committed to Expo 2020, including those with officially announced pavilion concepts (35): United Arab Emirates, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, Ukraine, United States.

Some of the other nations confirmed - Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Brunei, Brazil, Canada, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, China, Taiwan, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Fiji, Finland, Greece, Grenada, Guinea, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Iran, Iraq, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Lebanon, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Macau, Marshall Islands, Malaysia, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Mexico, Mozambique, Nauru, Netherlands, Nepal, Nigeria, New Zealand, North Korea, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Peru, Panama, Qatar, Russia, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Singapore, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Spain, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, Sudan, San Marino, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Tuvalu, East Timor, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uganda, Uruguay, Vatican City, Vietnam, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

Note: It is sometimes difficult to tell whether certain nations or exhibit representatives actually will end up with participation in a significant way. Newspaper reports as well as the official guidebook may even indicate participation, whether official or unofficial, when actual participation did not occur, or occurred minimally. Take the above as a guide, not gospel.

Expo Tidbits
Dubai won their bid to host World Expo 2020 over three other finalists; Yekaterinburg (Russia), Izmir (Turkey) Sao Paulo (Brazil).

There will be four main entrances to the Expo 2020 site.

Dubai currently has 100,000 hotel rooms available with a goal of 164,000 by the time Expo 2020 opens.

Legacies
Eighty percent of the buildings are supposed to remain after the fair in a district called District 2020.

Sources: Expo 2020 Authority, Forbes Magazine, Bureau of International Expositions; the National UAE; Fentress Architects; inparkmagazine.com.

Photo column top: Rendering of the United States Pavilion, 2019. Courtesy Fentress Architects. Botton: Interior image of the United States pavilion and their exhibit plan, 2020, Pavilion USA 2020 Dubai, Fentress Architects, George P. Johnson Experiences.