The EXPO27 exhibition will attract more than four million visitors, according to the estimates of the organizers of this international exhibition. However, it is not yet clear how many of those four million will actually be foreign tourists whose motive for coming to Belgrade will be exclusively EXPO27, which the authorities point out as the main argument in favor of the profitability of this project.
Last year it was announced that 120 or 130 new hotels would have to be built in Belgrade due to EXPO27 and that 2.6 million tourists would visit the EXPO, while now the number of four million visitors is mentioned, which means an even greater number of required accommodation capacities .
The capital city currently has 2,822 accommodation facilities with a total of 30,003 beds, of which 115 are hotels, which means that the number of hotels in the capital city would have to be at least doubled in the next two years.
Apart from Belgrade, accommodation can also be organized in Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica, Inđija, Sremski Karlovci.
In order to solve this problem, the state decided last year to subsidize the construction of new and reconstruction of existing hotels for the needs of EXPO27. Several projects have been applied for these incentives so far, the total planned investment value of which is 231 million euros. Of the above, more than 70 percent refers to investments in the construction of the hotel with a planned value of around 200 million euros, while the rest refers to the reconstruction of the hotel in the value of around 31 million euros, according to RAS.
EXPO27 may not be at the top of the list for tourists
The “EXPO 2027” company based its estimate of the arrival of four million visitors on data from previous EXPO events and consultations conducted with the International Bureau of Exhibitions and participating countries and other sources. It is primarily a business exhibition, related to the participating countries and their offer. A large number of people are expected to come from all participating countries, including those that are not participating
A large number of guests is certainly expected, and the number of four million visitors refers to the exhibition itself and its visitors, not to tourists. The exhibition that will be held in Belgrade, the so-called “small” EXPO that lasts for three months, and the attendance will be between 2.5 – 3.5 million people. A large number of them will surely come to Belgrade because of the exhibition that bears the name “Play for humanity – sport and music for everyone”.
As for real tourists, I don’t have the impression that there will be an increase in interest just because EXPO is in Belgrade. This did not happen in Dubai, nor in other places.
In 2023, 1,384,616 tourists – due to EXPO27, a much better result is expected, bearing in mind the fact that records are being broken year after year when it comes to the number of tourists in Serbia.
EXPO 2027 specialized exhibition
In 2023, the International Bureau for Exhibitions chose Serbia as the host of the specialized EXPO 2027 exhibition. The exhibition will be organized from May 15 to August 15, 2027, with the theme “Game(s) for humanity – sport and music for all”.
In addition to specialized EXPO exhibitions, which will be organized in Belgrade, there are also EXPO world exhibitions.
Specialized exhibitions last shorter than World Exhibitions and are organized in the period between the organization of two World Exhibitions. Specifically, the next World Exhibition will be organized in Japan in 2025 (Osaka 2025), and the previous one was organized in the United Arab Emirates in 2021 (Dubai 2020).
Specialized exhibitions, like the one that Serbia will organize, are global events that are designed to respond to a specific challenge that humanity is facing, explains the BIE website. They are limited in duration (maximum three months) and space (up to 25 hectares).
e2 portal (the new economy)
Source: www.e2.rs
