Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh has won the competition to host the 2030 World Expo, becoming the second Middle Eastern city to host the international event after Dubai in 2020.

The Riyadh Expo 2030 won the bid after 119 out of the 182 members of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the World Expo supervisor, voted in its favour.

The news was announced yesterday and described by Riyadh Expo 2023 organisers as a “historic achievement” on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Other cities bidding to host the event, which takes place every five years, were Rome in Italy and Busan in South Korea. Ukraine had also put in a bid for Odesa, but this was ruled out due to the Russian invasion.

To note that Expo 2030 will take place between 1 October 2030 and 31 March 2031 and will be curated under the title The Era of Change: Together for a Foresighted Tomorrow.