Great celebrations have taken place in the streets and major venue of Dubai after the announcement that the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) in Paris designed Dubai as the host city of the World Expo 2020. An happy ending after the huge media and promotional campaign financed by the Dubai business top players and the ruler of the city Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (who’s also prime minister and vice president of the United Arab Emirates). Dubai won the expo bid against three other cities: Izmir (Turkey), Ekaterinburg (Russia), Sao Paulo (Brazil), also because of the endorsement of Canada, UK and France among the 167 members of the organization.

Dubai campaign for Expo 2020 on one of the most iconic buildings

Now big business perspective are quite appealing, considering the acceleration of several turnkey contract projects in the most interesting segments of real estate and construction industry: hospitality/tourism, residential, commercial/retail. The Dubai Investments CEO, according to the local press, is expecting more than four millions visitors per month during the event and an explosion of integrated projects as 2020 gets closer. Above all are the Al Maktoum International Airport and the Meraas theme park in Jebel Ali. The Airport, according to the ambitious project of Shaikh Al Maktoum former Dubai ruler, is going to be the biggest airport in the world as well as the central hub of the new economic zone named Dubai World Central: an integrated system of economic activities (aviation, logistics, large scale commercial and residential business). On a 140 square kilometers surface (two times the Hong Kong island) is expected to reach a full operational regime of more than 160 millions of passengers and 12 tons of cargo per year.

Meraas Theme Park

The entertainment park will be a large scale system of five theme parks in Florida style, connected by several restaurants and hotel for a top level touristic and accommodation experience and eventually the biggest shopping centre of the planet.

Sheikh Mohammed…celebrating – http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae

Hospitality industry will benefit of the most relevant amount of investments, as Christopher Hewett senior consultant at TRI Hospitality Consulting confirms to Property Week:

with current occupancy levels at around 80%, the market will need additional properties in order to accommodate the scores of international visitors expected during the six-month event.

He estimates a positive trend of +20% in the total amount of rooms available within 2017. Impressive increase, but quite understandable if we think that Dubai’s economy has been built on key pillars of which tourism is one of the most important.

After the depressing slowdown in the real estate and construction industry after the global economic recession and the negative effects of the real estate financial speculation, Expo 2020 is a great opportunity to bring business back to the golden age of Dubai global rise, as well as a good chance for companies and professionals to increase their presence in the Emirates. This is the best moment, maybe taking advantage of one of the several economic free zones that have been set up across the country to attract foreign investments and to benefit of 0% tax on profits and a professional range of business services. One industry above all that could benefit of the present business increase is the design industry. Leading companies have been gradually quitting traditional marketing actions (like the INDEX exhibition) pivoting to most focused ones, like B2B marketing, push actions through developer/realtor channels, and focused strategies to approach international architecture firms.

This is the perfect moment to start…at full throttle!

Al Maktoum International Airport