The Middle East’s first-ever world fair began on Friday in Dubai after eight years of preparation and billions of dollars in expenditure, with expectations that the months-long spectacle would attract both tourists and worldwide attention.
The event, which was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed by a year owing to an outbreak of the coronavirus last year. It is possible that this will have an effect on the number of tourists that come to the United Arab Emirates.
A short time ago, the 1,080-acre exhibition site was a desolate stretch of desert. The area has transformed into a humming futuristic landscape complete with robotics, a new metro station, multimillion-dollar pavilions, and so-called districts with titles like “sustainability” and “opportunity”—all of which were constructed by migrant labor like most of the Gulf.
According to the organizers, 192 countries will be represented at the exhibition. A model of the Space X Falcon 9 rocket will be on display in the United States exhibit. Three-dimensional copy of Michelangelo’s biblical hero, David, standing 17 feet tall, is shown at Italy’s pavilion (5.2 meters). An African food hall, a regal Egyptian mummy, concerts and performances from across the globe, and an opportunity to dine on a $500 three-course dinner including glow-in-the-dark cuisine are among the other attractions.
During the opening ceremony of India’s pavilion at the Expo, the country’s Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, will be in attendance. The concepts that apply to India include openness, opportunity, and development.
A three-minute video message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to be shown, in which he will discuss India’s goals for sustainable development over the next 25 years.
International trade fairs have been taking place since 1851, when the first one was held in London. They have provided a forum for countries to come together to share ideas, display innovations, promote culture, and establish commercial connections.
For more than a century, these international exhibits have captivated the public’s imagination while showcasing some of humanity’s most significant technological breakthroughs.
The first world fair, held in the United States in 1876, saw the introduction of the telephone, the typewriter, a mechanical calculator, and Heinz Ketchup, among other innovations. That fair, which was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, drew almost 10 million visitors at a period when the total population of the United States was believed to be just 40 million. Memorial Hall, one of the university’s major buildings, is now a museum.
Some other innovations were on display at fairs, including the sewing machine, the elevator, carbonated soda, a Ferris wheel, and the television, which was first shown in New York City in 1939. People travelled long distances in order to get a view of the world in ways that they would not otherwise have had access to.
This year’s expo takes place in the midst of a worldwide epidemic, during which unimaginable numbers of people are still working and learning from home—and interacting with the rest of the globe online. It’s unknown how many tourists Dubai will be able to draw, or how much the exhibition would boost the city’s tourism-driven economy as a whole.
Visitors will be required to provide evidence of COVID-19 immunization or a negative PCR test in order to gain entry to the exhibition venue.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and the driving force behind the emirate’s development, has said that Expo 2020 would be an opportunity to exhibit the greatest of human achievement.
His remarks to attendees at the expo’s opening ceremony on Thursday night were inspiring. “It offers a framework to build a more united worldwide effort to build a more sustainable and prosperous future for all of humanity,” he said.
