Published on : Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Stuart Etherington said that the six-month event is expected to attract business tourists.
“Dubai has seen an increase in leisure [tourism] and a decrease in business tourism, so Expo 2020 might actually turn that around and we might see an increase in business tourism again,” Etherington said.
Moreover, Dubai’s hospitality industry will experience a slowdown following Expo 2020 due to hotel oversupply. Etherington said that the expo will not necessarily have a considerable impact on the market.
“Expo is expo. Milan, for example, [saw] very little change pre and post expo. If we took the same business model and we weren’t overly greedy, and we still continued to sell as we normally would in our high season, then why would expo make that big a difference?” Etherington said.
In August 2018, Hilton’s president of global development, architecture, design and construction said that he does not expect a drop in market activity after Expo 2020.
Ian Carter said that tourists will continue to fly to Dubai following the six-month event, which is due to attract around 25 million visitors.
Tags: Dubai's Expo 2020