Arabian Travel Market 2025: Expo City Dubai wants to host summits - and fashion shows, weddings too

Dubai: The Expo City Dubai wants to be the go-to place for global summits and exhibitions – but it also wants to be the place to host fashion events. And weddings too.

That’s right, Expo City Dubai wants to be the place to be in.

“We are very open to hosting weddings – we have the venues to support any sort of social event,” said Nadia Verjee, Executive Director of Expo Dubai Group.

The Expo City has so far been known as where the Cop28 sustainability conference was held and, of course, the definitive Expo 2020 global event. These are as big as they get when it comes to summits. But Expo City Dubai wants to be something more when it comes to events of less scale.

Such as weddings.

“There’re some weddings in the planning, for sure. So, whether it be ceremonies, product launches – we already had Bentley and L’Oreal – we are ready to host. There are also the community-themed events like ‘Dubai Run’. And you frequently see cyclists coming through on the Dubai cycle tour.

“Plus, of course, visitors in the tens and tens of thousands coming for the ‘Winter City’…”

What Nadia and by extension Expo City Dubai wants to put out is that this is where the events calendar is heading for in Dubai. Even with the majestic Dubai Exhibition Centre opening a key phase in 2026. (And soon after emphatically assert Dubai as the regional hub for exhibitions and conferences in the Middle East. It will also mean shifting events happening at Dubai World Trade Centre to the new location.)

But for Expo City Dubai, Dubai Exhibition Centre represents the core of what will is shaping up. “There are a further 30 indoor and outdoor spaces in Expo City that we regularly use,” said Nadia. “We have the Connect Conference Centre (C3) that’s state-of-the-art and can seat up to 1,000.

“There are the concerts that we already host in Al Wasl Plaza.

“So, it’s Dubai Exhibition Centre and everything else at Expo City Dubai coming together as a mega-destination for events in Dubai.”