From 1 October until March next year, 191 countries, including South Korea, are taking part

Active Expo marketing by Naeil Tour, Modu Tour, Yanatrip and others

The 2020 Dubai Expo, which was postponed by a year, began its six-month journey on 1 October.

Under the theme ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, the 2020 Dubai Expo will run until 31 March 2022, with 191 countries, including South Korea, set to showcase a variety of technologies, cultures and arts.

The travel industry expects demand for travel to Dubai to recover following this Expo. This is because the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is demonstrating stable indicators across various areas, including vaccination rates and trends in confirmed cases. Currently, the UAE’s full vaccination rate stands at 84% (as of 28 September, according to Our World in Data), whilst the first-dose vaccination rate reaches 94.8%. The daily average number of new COVID-19 cases is only 297.7 (as of 23–29 September). Notably, from October onwards, fully vaccinated travellers visiting the UAE will be exempt from quarantine upon entry into South Korea. Considering that, until September, travellers were unable to benefit from quarantine exemptions upon entry into South Korea due to variant strains, this effectively creates an environment where unrestricted travel to Dubai is now possible.

In line with this, marketing efforts by domestic travel agencies are gradually increasing. Naeil Tour is showcasing packages such as the ‘Dubai Expo Gold Pass’ (from 1.58 million won) and other premium Expo-related products through its ‘Dubai Right Now’ promotion, whilst Modetour is selling 6–7-day Dubai tour packages via its ‘Dubai: Just Like the Hero in Aladdin’ campaign. Yana Trip is prioritising the Dubai Expo in its product planning.

Jo Yeon-ah, a director at Yana Trip, stated, “We have begun receiving enquiries from corporate clients and independent travellers regarding participation in the Expo,” adding, “As travel to Dubai has become unrestricted from October, we expect travel bookings and enquiries to become even more active.” She added, “We will strive to revive travel demand by conducting site visits to the Dubai Expo and assessing the local pandemic situation.”

Meanwhile, an online ceremony commemorating the opening of the Expo was held via YouTube at 00:20 on 1 October (Korean time).