Region’s youth confident Expo 2020 will boost image of Arab world

About 89 per cent of Arab youth believed it would have a positive impact on the region according to findings of the sixth annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey.

DUBAI // Will Expo 2020 in Dubai improve the image of the Arab world globally? Most young Arabs think so, a survey suggests.

Nearly 90 per cent of the 3,500 who took part in the sixth annual Arab Youth Survey believe it will have a positive impact on the region.

Asked if they thought the UAE’s successful bid to host Expo 2020 would have a positive impact on the way the international community views the Arab world, 62 per cent of respondents said it would and a further 27 per cent said it was “possible”.

Only 4 per cent did not expect any impact and 7 per cent said they did not know.

The six-month world fair is expected to attract 25 million visitors and create about 277,000 jobs. Most young people in the Arab world were familiar with the UAE’s successful bid: 85 per cent said they knew Dubai had been selected as host city.

The survey showed there was great optimism about Expo 2020 among youth in Lebanon with 67 per cent positive about its impact, followed by Morocco at 66 per cent.

The positive sentiment was evenly split with GCC at 63 per cent and non-GCC countries at 61 per cent.

“It is optimistic to see that the region’s youth expect the global event to have a positive effect on the region and its international image,” said Sunil John, chief executive of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, the public relations agency in Dubai that carries out the survey.

The Arab Youth Survey is an annual initiative to provide data and insight into the aspirations of the region’s 200 million-strong youth population in order to inform policy and decision-making in the government and the private sector.

The international polling company PSB conducted 3,500 face-to-face interviews with Arab men and women aged 18-24 in the six GCC countries and Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Yemen and Palestine.

In-depth results are available online at arabyouthsurvey.com.