Youth engagement and pavilion experiences at Dubai EXPO 2020

In spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UAE successfully organized the Dubai Expo 2020, with the host country and organizers, targeting the youth as a very significant demography for programming and marketing. This qualitative study, thus, interviewed young UAE residents between the ages of 15–24 to determine what influenced or mired their country pavilion visits. Their responses audio-recorded and thematically analyzed to determine common patterns. Participants were purposefully selected for the interviews. From the results, participants indicated overall satisfaction with their pavilion visits, which were affected by their viewpoint on a nation’s standing, ease of access, proximity, pavilion aesthetics, social media influences by family and friends, as well as digital promotional campaigns. On the contrary, some inconveniences encountered include limited youth activities, overcrowding and long waiting times, and high temperatures. The study, therefore, recommends online pre-visit surveys to ferret out pavilion preferences for young visitors to help reduce idle roaming, which aggravates overcrowding. Furthermore, mega events like the Dubai Expo 2020 can be more successful by effectively implementing outdoor environmental management strategies to alleviate severe weather conditions, easing ticket booking, providing targeted youth programming, integrating alluring pavilion designs with improved accessibility.