Expo 2020 Dubai recorded more than one million visits in the past seven days, bringing the total close to 16 million since the world's fair began, organisers said on Tuesday.
Weekly numbers have been regularly exceeding the one-million mark, making February a record month for the Expo, with 4.4 million visits.
Total visits reached 15,995,423 since the site opened on October 1, with half of those in February being repeat visits.
A third of visits were from overseas, organisers said, with significant numbers from India, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Russia and France.
"As we've said all along, visitation at expos does tend to increase during the last months and weeks, and obviously now with more flights open we do hope that remains still true for ourselves," said Sconaid McGeachin, senior vice president of communications at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Organisers had initially set a target of 25 million visits before the start of the Expo.
Visits in the past week were boosted by an '80s night, featuring Bonnie Tyler, Boney M and Earth, Wind & Fire and Salman Khan's globetrotting Da-bangg Tour.
Organisers announced that the steering committee of the College of Commissioner Generals of Expo 2020 Dubai endorsed extended pavilion opening hours to 11pm.
"We've seen that visitors are wanting to stay on into the evening when they come," said Ms McGeachin.
More than 500,000 pupils from public and private schools across the Emirates have taken part in the Expo School Programme.
As of February 25, the site had received 532,794 pupils through the programme, which was curtailed to 62 academic days following the suspension of school visits during January.
Expo announced a relaxation of its Covid-19 rules, with face masks now optional while in outdoor areas of the site. However, visitors are encouraged to continue wearing them in “entertainment venues with large attendances”.
The virtual visitation numbers crossed 150 million, including more than three million virtual visits to the school journeys, with China, India, UAE, Philippines and Egypt among the main countries.
Meanwhile, Expo has launched a special white passport for those with 100 pavilion stamps or more.
Visitors with a minimum of 100 stamps in their existing yellow passport can present it at an Expo visitor centre, to receive the memento free of cost, as appreciation for their loyalty and commitment.
Organisers revealed last month that the 50-page passport, priced at Dh20, was the most popular souvenir sold at the event.
The souvenir book allows people to collect stamps at each of the pavilions they visit during the six-month event.
Expo 2020 passports come with watermarked pictures on each page and a unique code number, as well as space for personal details and a passport-sized picture.
Each pavilion offers a different stamp and visitors to the Expo on December 2, the UAE's 50th anniversary, received an exclusive stamp.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
India squad for fourth and fifth Tests
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Shaw, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur, Vihari
The 100 Best Novels in Translation
Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
