Dubai – Mubasher: Since the announcement of the Expo 2020 Dubai, hosts of companies have unveiled a myriad of hotels and properties in anticipation of the mega event which is forecast to attract around 25 million visitors to the emirate.
With this upcoming influx, analysts and experts have projected that the emirate’s economy would see a slowdown in market activity after the event, slated for October 2020, is over.
Hilton’s president of global development, architecture, design and construction Ian Carter, however, said he does not expect this drop in market activity, rather that tourists would continue to flock to the emirate after the six-month event.
“When you look at Expo, it is another great marquee event that Dubai has attracted due to airlift from Emirates. You have a great destination here with a lot of attractions, so I don’t see a dip in [the hospitality market] after Expo 2020,” Carter told Arabian business in an interview.
The Hilton executive went on to compare Dubai to Chicago in 1893, when the latter hosted its first world fair, highlighting that both cities had already been established before the arrival of their expos.
“He recalled experiencing Dubai’s transformation today compared to two decades ago, when it housed only a handful of hotels,” Arabian business reported.
Last month, Jumeirah Group CEO Jose Silva told the newspaper that he expected the Expo 2020 to lead to “a sluggish hospitality market” for around three years after the mega event ends.
“You may have a small stagnation after [Expo 2020] for a few years, 2 [to] 3 years, but my experience is that it only helps [markets] grow, because once you have more supply and offerings, inevitably, you will have more tourism. And it will soon after be fully consumed and growth will continue,” Silva had told Arabian Business.
He did, however, note that Expos have been “transformational” in most cities where they have taken place. “Expo 2020 is certainly the perfect moment to increase tourism infrastructure, be it in hotels, restaurants etc. It really allows you to invest and increase your tourism infrastructure,” he said.
In January, Emaar Hospitality CEO Olivier Harnisch stated that hotels were not built for six-month events, indicating Dubai’s Expo 2020, noting that they were made for long-term market development.
Harnisch warned against constructing hotels just for the event. “I don’t know if anyone would build hotels just for expo. We’d be foolish if we built hotels just for Expo,” he told Arabian Business at the Gulf and Indian Ocean Hotel Investors’ Summit (GIOHIS) in Abu Dhabi.
