Expo 2020 Dubai sticks to target of 25 million visits: Minister

Dubai - Expo 2020 Dubai will be held from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.

Expo 2020 Dubai is sticking to its target of 25 million visits, set prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director-General of Expo 2020 Dubai Bureau, hoped that the situation would be much better on October 1, when the six-month-long mega-event begins. She expected a turnaround following the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in the UAE and other countries.

Expo 2020 Dubai will be held from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.

Al Hashemy gave an interview to the British state-run broadcaster BBC, where she said despite travel restrictions and lockdowns in some countries, Expo 2020 Dubai is holding on to the pre-Covid-19 pandemic target of visits.

“The world has gone through these galactical shifts over the last year but now with vaccines being rolled out, we believe that the situation will settle by October. We believe the situation will be far more positive by then,” she said in the interview.

The UAE is the second-most vaccinated country in the world after Israel.

According to the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention (Mohap), altogether 8.9m Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered to date. This takes the rate of doses per 100 people to 90.7.