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Next year's Expo 2020 Dubai will focus less on visitor attendance numbers and more on the quality of experience for attendees, according to Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Director General of the Expo 2020 Dubai office.

Delayed by 12 months because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the six-month world showcase, which will now run from 1st October, 2021 to 31st March 2022, had been expecting to attract 25 million visits, with 70% anticipated to come from overseas.

However, the contraction of global tourism in the wake of COVID-19 outbreaks has forced organisers to rethink the logistics behind the vent, including putting practices in place for social distancing and increased health and safety measures.

Speaking to Arabian Business about these measures and the changed expectations for visitation, Expo 2020 Dubai Director General Reem Al Hashemy has today explained “I do believe people will come (and) by next October, things will hopefully be a lot more managed than what we’re currently living through now.

“But we’re also not taking anything for granted (and are) preparing different options for folks to be able to enjoy what the Expo has to offer.

“For us, it’s less about looking at the number of folks that walk through the gates, but the depth of experience that people have. I believe very strongly that what we’ve put in place, the themes that we’re going to talk about and the tone that we’re going to strike is really going to resonate with folks.”

Al Hashemy added that the key theme of the expo, ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, around the subthemes of sustainability, mobility and opportunity, would resonate stronger with participating countries and visitors to the site in the post-pandemic world.

She explained “Expo was always about purpose, people and the planet and today these three find themselves even more so in need of one another and re-enforcing one another and so when we think through the design of the expo, we are putting in place the elimination of queues, more social distancing, we’re limiting the number of people who could be, let’s say, in the Al Wasl Plaza.

“Our operational plans have new guiding principles, which are going to be more pre-programmed and more pre-curated in nature. We are still, however, going to be talking about the things that we always planned on talking about and somehow they sound a little different now because it seems a bit more visceral, more intimate and real.”

The first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, and largest ever event to take place in the Arab world, Expo 2020 will welcome 192 countries, plus businesses, multilateral organisations and educational establishments.

Images: Sustainability is one of Expo 2020 Dubai three sub-themes as will be demonstrated at the Sustainability Pavilion (top) and an aerial impression of how the completed Expo 2020 Dubai will look (below).

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