More than 400,000 visits to Expo 2020 Dubai were recorded in the first 10 days, organisers said during a press briefing on Monday. 

The visitor numbers are expected to increase, as the UAE’s weather improves, peak tourism season gets under way and more countries reopen to international travel, the event’s communications chief said. 

“Despite the hot temperatures, we have had fantastic attendance. If you look at other Expos, it tends to start slowly,” said Sconaid McGeachin, senior vice president for communications at Expo 2020 Dubai. 

“This is a six-month event, so we are not expecting to achieve all the figures in week one. As we get into the nicer weather, we expect the visits to increase still further. Every day is unique. There is always something new for people to come back and see more,” she said, highlighting the fact that one fifth had visited more than once in the first ten days.   

Expo organisers professed to be “absolutely delighted” with the visitor traffic, despite the fact that numbers would need to be close to four times that in a ten-day period to meet the 25 million visits officially expected. 

Official stats 

From October 1 to 10, a total of 411,768 ticketed visits were recorded. The figure excludes delegations, guests of international participants, partners and other stakeholders, as well as Expo staff. 

One in three visitors are from abroad, representing 175 nationalities, while one in five have been to the venue more than once in the first ten days of the month. A total of 192 countries are participating in the event.  

“Quite a remarkable achievement, considering we’ve yet to see our full international routes open up, we’re not yet into our peak tourism season for Dubai, we usually see it increase in late October when we have the half term break for many countries, going into the Christmas period,” said McGeachin. 

If visitor numbers remain consistent with the first ten days throughout Expo, the total visits throughout the event would be around seven million.   

Event organisers had previously said that total visits at the Expo would be 25 million, a figure that was first released by organisers prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic.    

As for the opening night, McGeachin said three million people watched the ceremony virtually.  Five million have also “visited” the event virtually during the first ten days.  

(Reporting by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Cleofe Maceda) 

Imogen.Lillywhite@refinitiv.com  

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