World Expo and Its Impact to Business Environment
Last November 2013, Dubai won bid to host World Expo 2020; out of 165 votes, Dubai bagged 116 votes to bring the World Expo to the United Arab Emirates (Raj & Abbas, 2013). It would be the first the World Expo will be held in Middle East and North Africa region with the theme: Connecting Minds, Creating the Future (Expo 2020 Dubai, 2012). World Expos are held throughout the world to continue The Great Exhibition of London in 1851 to solidify the global village through diversity and technological achievements. Dubai World Expo 2020 will showcase the cultural diversity, potential and opportunities of the MENA region with the extension of Southeast Asia; the MENASA is home to more than two people.
Dubai Expo 2020's theme centers on addressing the need of future opportunities, sustainable development, mobility and technology. The World Expo will be a testament to Dubai's transformation into a modern city. With partners such as DP World, Dubai Airports, Emirates Airline, Emirates NBD, Etisalat, and Jumeirah, Dubai intends to deliver a grand and remarkable experience to participants and audiences who will be flocking to the metropolis. In terms of energy consumption, Dubai Expo 2020 targeted to generate 50% of its power demand on site in line with the sustainability goals of the emirate.
World Expo 2020 will surely contribute huge impact to the economy of the emirate and the entire United Arab Emirates with the prospect of more than 25 million tourists flocking to Dubai, which is triple than the current tourism impact of the emirate (Gulf News, 2014). The preparation alone for the Expo would demand large investment on infrastructures which is estimated at Dh25 billion (Raj & Abbas, 2013). In terms of GDP, the entire event will increase Dubai's GDP by 28.8 billion euros. The preparation will immensely benefit the construction industry with the demand for infrastructures and facilities that will be used for the expo (Kapur, 2014). These facilities will still be used after the World Expo thereby changing the overall landscape of the emirate. Construction also includes demand for additional hotel and accommodation rooms for the 25 million tourists coming to Dubai for the said event.
Aside from investment on construction of infrastructure, the aviation industry also sees an increase of airlines that will transport passengers from around the world to Dubai. Airport investments will surely increase as airports are upgraded,expanded, and new entry ports are added such as the Al Maktoum International Airport. This means that Dubai has to increase its engineering, transportation, and logistic requirements to ferry people in and out the country and within the emirate (Kapur, 2014). Aside from these investments, indirect benefits will also increase entertainment and retail industries. With more people in the metropolitan, more people are needed to ensure that their leisure needs are met. While Dubai is already known as the New York of the MENASA region, the Expo will surely jump up its retail industry demanding for more products to made and to be sold.
As much as investments will be poured in Dubai for the expo, an estimated 277, 000 jobs will be created in the span of seven years for the preparation and additional jobs on the entire course of the event (Raj & Abbas, 2013). In the same manner, pay hikes for workers will also increase thereby benefiting citizens to meet the increasing lifestyle modernity of the region (Kapur, 2014). This means that employees will be able to reap mutual benefits with the increase of the emirate's GDP output. Aside from employment, businesses can also be opened by citizens to meet demands for entertainment, food, and retail.
Emirates Airline
Emirates Airline is a pioneer of sustainable air travel in the region and in global scale. With environmentally forward-thinking policies and strategies, Emirates has developed systems to improve flight times and reduce ground operation emissions. But these are just few of the changes and improvements being bolstered by Emirates Airline as Dubai and the entire UAE prepares for the World Expo 2020.
At the top of the country's priority is to meet the growing demand of air traffic in the region. With the anticipation of Expo 2020, Dubai tourism is expected to increased by more than 100%. With this estimation, more people will be entering Dubai through its airports. According to the report of Khaleej Times (2014), World Expo 2020 will boost the airport investment of the region. The country must build a new airport that can handle the volume of people who will be coming to witness the World Expo 2020.
With the anticipation of volume of tourists during the Expo and the investment in airport infrastructure, Emirates Airline must prepare itself for the expansion in terms of operation. With new air entries being built to facilitate transportation, Emirates Airline has an opportunity to increase number of flights. However, this opportunity poses a challenge on the number of planes available to fly from various destinations or points around the world to the airports of Dubai. This means that Emirates Airline has to increase its number of fleet. According to Emirates Airline (2014), the company has ordered 150 777X aircraft from Boeing as additional force to its growing fleet (BBC, 2014). Portion of these planes will be delivered to Emirates Airline prior to the World Expo 2020 and these aircraft will be used to increase the operation of Emirates Airline in anticipation of the number of tourists to visit Dubai.
Below is a summary of the challenges and opportunities that Emirates Airline has to face with the World Expo 2020.
Challenges | Opportunities |
Emirates Airline has to increase its fleet to meet demands of the market, in terms of quality and standard of services. | Being the official partner for Dubai Expo 2020, Emirates Airline is positioned in a strategic competitive advantage over its competitors in terms of partnership and inclusive offers during the Expo. |
Emirates Airline's current fleet does not have the capacity to fly these staggering number of tourists within the period of the Expo 2020. | Expo 2020 will be expecting 25 million tourists flocking the emirate and the region. |
Emirates Airline can now fly other destinations around the world with new terminals and allotted air traffic. | Opening of new airport terminals. This will allow new runways and park for aircraft; this will also allow more flights to be scheduled, thus increasing the operations of the airline company. |
Etisalat
Another partner of the Expo 2020 is Etisalat. Etisalat is a telecommunications and ICT provider in the region. This partnership allows Etisalat to be the official telecommunication and ICT distributor of the activities that will be happening during the Expo 2020. This means that those who want to see activities being held can watch through their mobile or computer devices through the infrastructure and services of Etisalat.
According to the report made by Zawya (2013), the mobile subscriptions of Etisalat and other ICT providers of the country will surely jump up with the Expo 2020. With the anticipation of more people coming to the region and those who want to witness the event, there will be a great number of people needing communication lines such as mobile connections and data subscriptions. Etisalat is faced with the influx of users and the demand of the infrastructure as the result of the Expo.
Presented below is a list of challenges and opportunities that must be taken advantage and addressed by Etisalat to be able to make the most out of the Expo 2020:
Challenges | Opportunities |
Users of mobile communication will increase during the Expo 2020; with 25 million coming to the region, there is an expected 25 million people who will be using the infrastructure that may lead to the collapse of the current infrastructure. Traffic of data and voice will surely overload the system of Etisalat. | With anticipation of increased number of people in the region, number of users and subscriptions will surely increase, thus giving Etisalat a position of market and profitability value. |
Number of users who will be using networks from other regions, thus increasing integration of roaming services; this integration will also lead to system complexity and demand for stronger physical or hardware infrastructure. | With users of other nation's ICT providers, Etisalat gets the chance to tie up strategic partnership with these networks or providers to build the roaming services. |
Data and digital provision will demand a bigger part of the current infrastructure of the system. | Mobile users will be using data to witness events even when they are in their hotels. Digital provisions will increase, thus giving Etisalat a chance to capture a bigger market in terms of profitability. |
Recent improvements and partnerships of Etisalat positioned the company to be prepared for the Expo 2020. Its partnership with ENTIRETEC to offer bandwidth-on-demand services through Core Layer Technology or CLT will help the company to provide better data services to its clients especially those who are in the hospitality and leisure industry that needs integration and market operations to reduce cost.
References
BBC News. (2014). Emirates and Boeing finalise order for 150 777X aircraft. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28228375
Expo 2020 Dubai. (2012). Overview| Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE. Retrieved from http://expo2020dubai.ae/en/
Gulf News. (2014). Expo 2020 could earn huge windfall for Dubai. Retrieved from http://gulfnews.com/business/economy/expo-2020-could-earn-huge-windfall-for-dubai- 1.1282586
Kapur, S. (2014). World Expo 2020: Heralding Dubai�s next chapter of super-growth. Retrieved from http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/world-expo-2020-heralding-dubai-s- next-chapter-of-super-growth-2014-01-04-1.533301
Khaleej Times. (2014). UAE�s ICT infrastructure a strength in Expo 2020 bid. Retrieved from http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp? section=uaebusiness&xfile=data/uaebusiness/2013/October/uaebusiness_October429.xml
Khaleej Times. (2014). Expo 2020 win boosts airport investments. Retrieved fromhttp://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp? xfile=data/uaebusiness/2014/January/uaebusiness_January325.xml§ion=uaebusiness\
Raj, R. & Abbas, W. (2013). EXPO 2020: DUBAI WINS BY FAR. Retrieved from http://www.emirates247.com/expo-2020/expo-2020-dubai-wins-by-far-2013-11-27- 1.529426
Zawya. (2013). Dubai Expo 2020: Catalyst for further UAE growth. Retrieved from https://www.zawya.com/story/Special_Report_Dubai_Expos_growth_impact- ZAWYA20131203062215/
