Dubai's Expo 2020 world's fair will be delayed to Oct. 1, 2021, due to the new coronavirus pandemic, a Paris-based body behind the events said Monday.
Members of Bureau International des Expositions had been voting on the requested delay for days, with a final tally expected by the end of May.
On Monday, however, the bureau said a required two-thirds of the countries in the organization had voted to approve the delay, meaning it would be granted.
The bureau’s executive committee voted unanimously in April to back the proposal.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the chairman and CEO of Emirates who also serves on Dubai's Expo committee, welcomed the announcement in a statement.
“We are thankful to member states for their continued commitment to contributing to a World Expo in Dubai that will play a pivotal role in shaping our post-pandemic world at a time when it will be most needed,” Sheikh Ahmed said.
The United Arab Emirates in March proposed postponing Expo 2020 Dubai by a year, after participating countries asked for a delay due to the pandemic.
It had been due to run from Oct. 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
Dubai won the rights to host the event in 2014. That helped boost Dubai’s crucial real-estate market and had officials hoping for more tourists in the city-state.
Now, the pandemic has grounded flights by Dubai’s long-haul carrier Emirates, jeopardized global tourism and caused further panic in a real-estate market already down by a third since the 2014 announcement.
