PARIS: The Expo 2020 global trade fair, hosted by Dubai, has been postponed by a year due to the coronavirus outbreak and will be held from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, the Paris-based organiser said Monday.
The six-month, multibillion-dollar global innovation fair, set to be the largest event ever staged in the Arab world, was expected to attract some 24 million visitors starting October 20 this year. But a two-thirds majority of member states of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) voted in favour of a delay requested by the United Arab Emirates, which the body said “allows all participants to safely navigate the impact of COVID-19.”
“Expo 2020 Dubai is gearing up to help shape a post-pandemic world and create a better future for all,” the bureau said in a statement. The delay “also allows the World Expo to focus on a collective desire for new thinking to identify solutions to some of the greatest challenges of our time.” Dubai, the glitzy city-state which is part of the United Arab Emirates and is known for hosting hundreds of conferences annually, has already scrapped a string of cultural and entertainment events amid the pandemic that has claimed more than 246,000 lives around the world to date.
