Exploring Residents’ Perceptions of Mega Event-Dubai Expo 2020: A Pre-Event Perspective

Abstract

This study explores the residents’ perceptions of economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts of a mega-event (World Expo 2020) to be held in Dubai, as well as their level of inclination to participate in the event. The event organizers announced a requirement of thirty thousand volunteers to assist them in successfully organizing the mega event. Such events could prove to be landmarks in destination brand building and may lead to an increase in the number of tourists. The purpose of the study is to gauge the level of understanding about the event impacts within the resident population and their willingness to get involved in event organization. Priory studies of perceptions about the economic, cultural and environmental impacts of a mega-event, are well-nigh non-existent, especially for World Expositions. This study explores residents’ perception to get a fair idea of how they get involved in a mega event that will surely have profound impacts on the destination. Drawing on stakeholder theory and triple bottom line (TBL) model, the study uses primary data collected from more than two hundred fifty residents of the region, through a structured questionnaire. The data analysis follows a descriptive design supported by SEM and path analysis. Major findings indicate favorable and promising responses from the residents, and brings forth the scope to improve the level of involvement of the residents to make the event a success.

Analyzing the Housing Consumer Preferences via Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

“…On the other hand, in previous studies, it was analyzed that various factors such as the convenience of transportation (CT), residential environment (RE), local amenities (LA), and relationships between neighbors (NR) were emphasized. The results of this study can be understood as reflecting the current economic situation in Dubai [ 76 ].…”

World’s Fairs in the Service of National Branding – The State of Research, Key Elements of Exhibitors’ Presentations, Exemplification of Image-Building Activities

“…World exhibitions were set in a broad economic context (Sun, Ye, 2010). Studies focused on how the organisation of Expos stimulated the tourist industry (Jauncey, Nadkarni, 2014) and demonstrated their impact on citizens living in host cities (Lamberti, Noci, Guo, Zhu, 2011;Wang, 2014;Vij, Upadhya, Vij, Kumar, 2019]. The analysis also covered the architecture of individual national pavilions (Martínez Calzón, Castañón Jiménez, 2010;Yang, Chen, Jiang, Lu, 2012;Seo, 2017, to name but a few) and of other facilities which have become the symbols of host cities over time (Yang, Chen, Jiang, Lu, 2012).…”

Tourism, Governance and Sustainable Development

“…The final set of papers in this special issue covers the sustainability of different types of tourism in destinations. Vij et al [32] introduce the topic of mega-events into the special issue, examining resident perceptions of the Dubai 2020 World Expo. Drawing on stakeholder theory and the triple bottom line (TBL) model, the study uses primary data collected from more than two hundred and fifty residents of the region through a structured questionnaire, and applies structural equation modelling and path analysis to develop findings that indicate perceptions from residents about hosting the event.…”