So we visited Expo 2020, on a couple of days. After all, this was the principal ostensible reason for going. Just getting away for a week, to somewhere warm, after two years of not being able to do so had nothing to do with it. At all.
The Expo is on a new site about 25 miles or so from our hotel (Dubai really is that spread out). It’s broadly organised in three themes – Sustainability; Mobility; and Opportunity – and each theme has a has large area of the Expo dedicated to it within which is a grand thematic pavilion. Then in each area are the country pavilions, and the exhibition or display in each country pavilion is supposed to reflect, to some degree, the theme of the area it was situated in. There were over 200 country pavilions, ranging from vast (Thailand, for example) to small (Nigeria was just one room on one level). Then there were food outlets, again ranging in size from small carts to full scale restaurants. Some of the latter were associated with a country pavilion – we had a very good lunch in the restaurant attached to the Thai pavilion, for example – but there were a number of non-country specific outlets, e.g. there Costa Coffee outlets all over the site. There were also several parks, and a number of performance stages dotted around.
On our first day there (Saturday) we got there on the free shuttle bus provided by the hotel; this departed at 09:10 and arrived by about 9:45. There was also a later departure, at 11:10, and two return journeys with pickups from Expo at 6:45 and 8:45 in the evening. Our shuttle bus (just 17 seats) was pretty full on the way there, but when we came back at 6:45 there were just four of us on the bus. This suggested that the later bus might have been over-full. Fortunately there were alternatives; the local public transport authority was running free buses from various points in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and even points further afield every 30 minutes or so, and once you’ve got by bus to a convenient point in central Dubai then you can always get a taxi or use the metro to get to your hotel. Indeed, this was what we had to do today (Monday): the early bus to the Expo was full and we couldn’t get on it, so we took a taxi to Dubai Mall (25Dhs or a bit more) and then the free bus from there. Easy enough, but it meant we didn’t get there until an hour later than planned. Then we reversed the operation mid-afternoon.
Readers, we did not do well on Saturday. We visited a couple of the thematic pavilions (Sustainability and Opportunity) but keep looking at the country pavilions. In fact, we now think that it was the more thematic elements that were the best thing about the Expo. Some of the country pavilions hewed closer to their theme than others, and these were better – Singapore, situated in the Sustainability area, majored on their ‘city in a garden’ policy, for example. Others seemed to pay little attention to the theme.
We were also taken aback by the fact that there were queues to get into many of the pavilions, and at first this put us off visiting them. For example, there were long queues around both of the entrances to the UAE’s pavilion, the biggest at the Expo, and so we didn’t bother. Later in the day we became more relaxed about this, but in the course of that first day, a fair proportion of our time was taken up by foraging for food and searching for sanitation….
We decided to return today (Monday) specifically to target three pavilions that we had not visited: the UAE, Mobility, and Thailand. We were immediately disappointed when we discovered that the UAE pavilion was closed for most of the day, But we regrouped and did Thailand (where, as I mentioned above, we had an excellent lunch) and the Mobility pavilion. This was actually the best thing we saw, and we decided to leave after that – finish on a high note.
On purely practical points, we managed to bag ourselves a free multi-day pass courtesy of Emirates Airline who were supplying them to passengers. In theory visitors had to buy tickets, but I get the impression that as the Expo has continued (it’s been open since 1 October 2021 and will finish at the end of March), free tickets have become more common. Additionally, they were checking Covid vaccination status. Well in fact we snuck in on Saturday without that being checked which was as well because we weren’t ready to display our statuses, but by today we’d got that sorted out (downloaded the Covid pass to Apple Wallet) and indeed they were checked.
I’m still trying to summarise my thoughts about the Expo. Parts of it were spectacular (it certainly looked a million dollars), but it was also hot and tiring. And you have to ask about an exposition dedicated in part to Sustainability that’s being staged in a small desert country where everything has to be air-conditioned, and to which many visitors fly. But I have to say that I’m glad we went.
Looks really interesting, but you’ve certainly not had a particularly relaxing time. Still, at least you’ve seen some sunshine xxx
Yes it was, but maybe harder work than expected.
As regards the sunshine, I’m always surprised by how dry the heat is here. The temperature was into the low 30s over the weekend and Monday, but the humidity is so low that it’s very easy to take.
Hi Tom Thank you so much for this. I have been to an Expo before and it was the most spectacular thing that I have seen so I was looking forwards to going to Expo 2020. Sadly due to the difficulty of covid and coming from Canada I did not go. I am so disappointed in this I am planning to go next month April 2023. There are seven Pavilions opened and at least I will see the site. They are building condos and I just want to experience something of the place and I will be staying at the Expo Rove Hotel. of course visiting the city. About Expo it is so sad, they were expecting between 24 to 75 million visits and they only got 24 million and I have been told that this is highly inflated. This all due to covid and poor foreign advertising . But why didn’t they simply reopen expo for 2022-23 ? With all the country Pavilions ? This has been done before with every highly successful Expo, Chicago, New York and Expo 67 Montreal as an example all these cities had two full years of Expo. Dubai just did one ? Anyways, at least it will be a nice break and can’t wait to fly Emirates !! Thank you again for this blog !!! By the way what do you think of visiting Expo City this April ?
Thanks for the comment, Gary
I’m not surprised that the numbers were on the low side. On the other hand, I’m not sure how they were counting. I know we had free tickets (from Emirates) and I understand that this was common. Also I’m not sure how well they would have coped with many more visitors – the queues for the more popular pavilions were an hour or more, and some areas were very busy and crowded. This was especially true around the Thematic pavilions. In any case, I imagine that the point of the exercise was to promote the UAE and Dubai, and I think it did that. They’d put ‘Expo 2020’ transfers on most if not all of their big A380 aircraft well before the Expo started, and they were flying into European airports many times a day, both before the pandemic and in the later stages – Manchester airport, my local long-haul airport, had 3 A380 flights a day before the pandemic. Many European airports had the same frequency, and not just to the major airports, e.g. Heathrow or Frankfurt; Emirates have created completely new markets by flying comprehensively to regional airports in Europe.
Then there were also the famous “flight attendant at the top of the Burj Khalifa” adverts. I don’t know if you’ve seen them, but here’s a link to one of them on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbL9QdWWJzo
Visiting the site this April: I don’t know. It’s a long way out! Dubai is not good about announcing what’s on, where. Just go and enjoy (and wonder) at the feel and look of this extraordinary place.
Hi Tom
This is Gary from Canada. I was wondering if you have visited Expo 2023 in Daho Qatar ? I have seen some videos Posted and it seems very good. If you know anything about it do you think that it is worth visiting ? I will be in Dubai in March and if it is worth going I will go over to Daho and visit the fair. What do you think ? Thank you.
Gary
Hello Gary
No, we didn’t go to the expo in Qatar. We generally only do one long-haul holiday a year and last year we went to the US to visit our daughter so no trip to the Gulf.
As it happens we will be in Doha – briefly – next month, in the context of a trip to Singapore. We’re flying with Qatar Airways (instead of Emirates), but we’re not going into the city – we’ll just be transferring flights.