Dubai ready to host Expo 2020 despite Covid challenge, says tourism chief Helal Al Marri blames the recent spike of coronavirus cases on a 4-5% drop in compliance by residents Al Wasl Plaza, the centrepiece of the Expo 2020 Dubai site. Dubai has a very clear plan on how to deal with Covid-19 and will be ready to receive visitors for the world Expo exhibition this year, a government official said. “We feel very confident,” Helal Al Marri, director general of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said in an interview with CNN. “We’re going to be ready to make sure that the growth starts this summer and by Expo in the fourth quarter, we look to welcome the world.” The Expo, which Dubai has been preparing for a decade, is meant to be one of the biggest events globally this year and generate billions of dollars for the government. The resurgence of the virus in recent months has complicated the planning. Daily cases in the United Arab Emirates have quadrupled since November as the country opened up for travel and eased movement restrictions. The surge forced Dubai to reintroduce curbs on hotels and air travel, and the emirate replaced its top health official last month. Al Marri, pictured below, blamed the spike on lack of compliance. “When we had a 98-99 percent compliance, we didn’t see any spike. When that dropped by four to five percentage points, we saw numbers go up,” he said. While cases have jumped in recent months, the country has also rolled out an aggressive inoculation program. It has administered almost 3.7 million vaccine doses in a population of about 10 million, one of the highest rates of inoculations per 100 people globally. Al Marri also pushed back against criticism over Dubai’s open-city approach towards the end of last year and said the emirate had about 560,000 visitors in December – a third of the usual numbers. Tourism typically peaks during the end of the year and scores of visitors flew into the city last December to escape lockdowns backs home. Hotels were 71 percent full in the last month of the year – the highest figure since February – research firm STR said, citing preliminary data. “We approach things at a very measured fashion but it is our philosophy that we should work through this pandemic, keep open, keep everybody safe and make sure we work closely with the industry to make sure that compliance happens in a credible way,” Al Marri said. Source: Arabian Business 2021-02-04 11:22:34 https://www.ld-export.com/upload/ld-export-8cef0d-large.jpg
Dubai ready to host Expo 2020 despite Covid challenge, says tourism chief

Posted on Thursday 04 February 2021. Reading time : 3 mins

Dubai ready to host Expo 2020 despite Covid challenge, says tourism chief

Helal Al Marri blames the recent spike of coronavirus cases on a 4-5% drop in compliance by residents

Al Wasl Plaza, the centrepiece of the Expo 2020 Dubai site.

Dubai has a very clear plan on how to deal with Covid-19 and will be ready to receive visitors for the world Expo exhibition this year, a government official said.

“We feel very confident,” Helal Al Marri, director general of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, said in an interview with CNN. “We’re going to be ready to make sure that the growth starts this summer and by Expo in the fourth quarter, we look to welcome the world.”

The Expo, which Dubai has been preparing for a decade, is meant to be one of the biggest events globally this year and generate billions of dollars for the government. The resurgence of the virus in recent months has complicated the planning.

Daily cases in the United Arab Emirates have quadrupled since November as the country opened up for travel and eased movement restrictions.

The surge forced Dubai to reintroduce curbs on hotels and air travel, and the emirate replaced its top health official last month.

Al Marri, pictured below, blamed the spike on lack of compliance. “When we had a 98-99 percent compliance, we didn’t see any spike. When that dropped by four to five percentage points, we saw numbers go up,” he said.

While cases have jumped in recent months, the country has also rolled out an aggressive inoculation program. It has administered almost 3.7 million vaccine doses in a population of about 10 million, one of the highest rates of inoculations per 100 people globally.

Al Marri also pushed back against criticism over Dubai’s open-city approach towards the end of last year and said the emirate had about 560,000 visitors in December – a third of the usual numbers.

Tourism typically peaks during the end of the year and scores of visitors flew into the city last December to escape lockdowns backs home. Hotels were 71 percent full in the last month of the year – the highest figure since February – research firm STR said, citing preliminary data.

“We approach things at a very measured fashion but it is our philosophy that we should work through this pandemic, keep open, keep everybody safe and make sure we work closely with the industry to make sure that compliance happens in a credible way,” Al Marri said.

Source: Arabian Business

Contact us

info@ld-export.com +352 264 59 378

Our European Clients

Contact us


Nous rassemblons et traitons les données à caractère personnel reçues de votre part via ce formulaire dans le cadre de la gestion de nos clients, de notre comptabilité et de notre marketing direct. En remplissant ce formulaire, vous donnez expressément votre accord à ce traitement (cochez la case « opt-in » ci-dessous). Vos données à caractère personnel ne seront transmises et conservées que dans la mesure et la durée rendues nécessaires par les finalités susnommées. Vous avez un droit de consultation, rectification, suppression et regard sur ces données. Le responsable du traitement est l’entreprise LD Export (38/16, Duarrefstrooss , 9990 Weiswampach). Pour de plus amples informations, vous pouvez consulter notre Data Protection Notice sur notre site Internet https://www.ld-export.com/fr/mentions-legales.html.