Who will benefit from Expo 2020?

Dubai was this week named as the winner of the bid to host Expo 2020 and this is set to be great news for a variety of reasons.

As well as drawing thousands of visitors to the emirate and significantly raising its profile in the years to come, various industries and sectors are sure to also record positive results on the back of the world-famous event.

Gulf Business has published a guide to who exactly is set to benefit from the hosting of Expo 2020 and what Dubai has to look forward to. It explained the event is set to act as a $23 billion (£14 billion) boost to the economy, according to a prediction in the Global Emerging Markets report by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The first area the news source expects to benefit from Expo 2020 is retail, with many of the world's most prestigious brands already based in Dubai.

"As Dubai increasingly becomes recognised as a centre of commerce for the southern hemisphere, the Expo could potentially boost this reputation with exponential growth of up to four times [the current retail sector]," explained Majid Al Ghurair, chairman of the Dubai Shopping Malls Group.

Even during its relatively short history, Dubai has already established itself as one of the world's best destinations for shopping.

Another market set to take advantage of the arrival of Expo 2020 is the hotel trade, with plans to diversify and expand the supply of places to stay in the emirate in the next seven years already in place.

A government scheme to give concessions to businesses that choose to build three or four-star hotels in Dubai will help to encourage the development of new facilities. These new rooms will also be exempt from the municipality fee of ten per cent of the total rate.

HE Helal Almarri noted Dubai's intention is to almost double the number of rooms that are available to visitors between 2013 and 2020 in order to cope with the substantial demand that is sure to be forthcoming throughout the event.