Celebrations have begun across Saudi Arabia after Riyadh was selected to host the World Expo 2030 at the 173rd BIE General Assembly in Paris today. The Saudi votes received xxx votes out of a total of 182.
Riyadh beat out the two main other bidding cities Rome in Italy and South Korea’s Busan to host the showpiece event held every five years.
The World Expo 2030 will be held in the Saudi capital after an intense lobbying process from all the contenders. According to the bid, the Riyadh Expo will be held from October 2030 to March 2031 under the theme “The Era of Change: Together for a Foresighted Tomorrow.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has been at the forefront of the Kingdom’s efforts to host the Expo, which would be the latest in a line of events to be hosted by the Kingdom.
The hosting of the Expo is regulated by the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), an organization created almost a century ago which now has 182 member states.
The host is chosen at the BIE’s general assembly on Tuesday with the candidates making a final presentation and then the winner is chosen in rounds of voting by the member states.
The most recent World Expo took place in 2020 in Dubai and the next World Expo is due in 2025 in Osaka, Japan under the theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.”