As anticipated by HOST CITY last year, a bid from Britain for the World Expo 2025 has been confirmed. 

The UK culture secretary Sajid Javid said the need to boost the business events sector is a major driver for bidding for the World Expo.

The government is currently speaking with tourism bodies and the business events sector to decide on a location to put forward as a candidate for the World Expo 2025.

“Britain is renowned for putting on some of the biggest events in world sport, following the success of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Javid said.

Since 2012, London has twice been voted the world’s “Ultimate Sports City”.

However, London stands only tenth in the International Congress and Convention Association’s global ranking of numbers of business events hosted. 

Paris, Madrid, Vienna, Barcelona and Berlin make up the top five cities for hosting business events. 

America, Germany, Spain and France all host more business conferences and events than the UK, despite the fact that hosting business conferences and events brings GB£39.1bn to the country.

The UK’s intention to bid was announced as the government published its “Business Visits and Events Strategy” that seeks to attract some of the biggest global fairs and conferences to the UK’s cities. 

“I want us to increase our standing in the business events world and host more major conferences that can help generate growth for our economy and create jobs,” said Javid.

“Bringing the World Expo to the UK in 2025 would be a major coup and give us another great opportunity to champion the best of Britain to the world.”

The UK’s candidate city will be competing for the Expo against world cities such as Paris, which announced its intention to bid last year.

After selecting a candidate city, the UK will need to produce a candidature file that demonstrates its technical capability to the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).

Speaking at HOST CITY Bid to Win in October 2014, Dimitri Kerkentes, chief of staff at the BIE said: “We need to be able to be accountable, to say that when this project was approved to go forward to the voting stage we saw that you have the capacity to pull it off – whether it’s in four years’ time or nine months’ time – we saw that you have everything that’s technically required to host an Expo.”

The World Expo 2015 takes place in Milan from 1 May to 31 October. In 2020, Dubai will be hosting the World Expo. 

Bidding for and hosting a World Expo will again be a key topic of HOST CITY 2015, the largest meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls has offered public support for bringing the World Expo to France’s capital, prompting reports earlier this week that such a move would end the city’s chances of staging the Olympics exactly 100 years on from its previous hosting in 1924.

However, Nathalie Iannetta, the sports advisor to French President Francois Hollande, told the Associated Press news agency that it could be financially viable for both events to be pursued. “The investments that will be made will benefit both projects,” she said.

A feasibility study is due to be completed by the French Olympic Committtee early next year in collaboration with influential figures from sport, politics and business, with Iannetta stating that the findings will be central to deciding Paris’ next course of action. 

“If it shows that a Paris bid is pertinent and that we have good chances to win, then the World Expo bid won't be an obstacle,” Iannetta added.

The United States, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Qatar, South Africa and Turkey have joined France in expressing an interest in hosting the 2024 Olympics.

Bids for the Games must be submitted by next year and the International Olympic Committee will select the winner in 2017. Bids for the hosting rights to the 2025 World Expo straddle this process, with submissions due in 2016 and a decision set to be made two years later.

Bernard Lapasset, the head of the French Committee for International Sport, called upon experience from his other role as the president of the International Rugby Board to state that hosting the Olympic Games and the World Expo in consecutive years would be possible.

“We'll obviously need to be careful with the finances, but look what happened with Japan,” Lapasset said. “They won the rights to host the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the 2020 Olympics.”

In other news, Germany will delay its decision over whether to put forward either Berlin or Hamburg as a candidate city for the 2024 Olympics until next year.

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) was expected to make its choice at a December 6 strategy meeting, but president Alfons Hörman is keen for his organisation to see the results of the IOC’s ‘Agenda 2020’ initiative and further assess the levels of support for Olympic hosting in both cities.

Hörmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper: “The worst option would be that we decide firmly on a city only for its citizens to then say the project will not be supported.”

The latest polls suggest Hamburg has significant public weight behind a bid, while Berlin - host of the 1936 Olympics - is more lukewarm overall.

Munich failed in a bid to stage the 2018 winter Olympic Games and Hörmann added: “A second Munich must not happen to us.”

Cities around the world are expressing their interest in hosting World Expos, with the hosts of the International Exposition in 2023 and Universal Exposition in 2025 expected to be determined over the next two to three years. 

The geographical location of the city and the sustainability of the project will be among the decisive factors, according to Vincente Loscertales, secretary general of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). 

Speaking to HOST CITY about why Dubai was awarded the right to host World Expo 2020, Loscertales said “The policy of the organisation is to move Expos to new regions and particular regions which are the link between continents, between other regions.”

Traditionally, World Expos have either taken place in Western Europe, North America or Japan. However, in recent years, as with many major global events, the trend has been towards moving Expos to pastures new such as the Far East – in the case of Shanghai 2010 – and most recently, the Middle East. 

Expo 2017 was awarded to the Kazak capital Astana whilst Expo 2020 will take place in the emirate of Dubai. “Moving the Expo to the Middle East is to take the Expo to a hub; to a place that is a link in trade, transport and financial systems between continents. From this point of view, Dubai is an excellent showcase,” said Loscertales.

“In the case of Dubai, it’s to bring it to a region which is sometimes better known because of conflict, and to show how an Expo in this area will contribute to a better knowledge of the whole region. It is the first time an Expo will take place in an Arabic, Muslim country.”

A whole range of cities from both East and West, are lining up to be considered for the 2025 World Expo. Whilst there are possible bids from Chinese, Russian and Iranian cities, the Expo’s founding fathers London and Paris are also in the mix. 

“We are also in talks with some American cities – Houston and San Francisco. We have also received news from Azerbaijan that they would like to host an Expo in Baku in 2025.”

With the cost of bidding for a World Expo running to as much as US$ 100m, the BIE is keen to make sure that interested cities proceed with their eyes open. Before a city formally bids to host a World Expo, the requirements of hosting the event are explained in a preliminary conversation with the BIE – what Loscertales describes as a “pre-dialogue”.

The result should be a handful of strong candidates. “I anticipate that we will consolidate three to five bids from all the applications,” says Loscertales.

Sustainability must be at the core of both the theme and the planned delivery of an Expo bid. “The duty of our organisation when we evaluate an Expo project is first of all to see how this Expo project is integrated with the environment.”

Loscertales also discussed the progress of Expo 2015 in Milan, which has been hit by construction delays and police investigations into alleged corruption in the awarding of contracts. 

“The political environment is complicated,” said Loscertales. “We have to be optimistic and I am convinced that in May we are going to open the gates of a very beautiful exhibition in Milan.”

To read the full interview with Vincente Loscertales, register to receive HOST CITY magazine

Manchester in northern England is urging the new UK government, formed after the “Brexit” referendum, to put forward its bid for the 2025 World Expo.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) said it is “encouraging the government to seize the opportunity for a global shop window to demonstrate that the UK is open for business and committed to international trade following the referendum vote to leave the European Union”.

“It’s more important than ever that the UK takes it places on a world stage to compete for investment, exports and visitors,” said Tony Lloyd, interim Mayor of Greater Manchester.

“World Expo 2025 would be the perfect platform on which to do so and we believe Greater Manchester would offer an ideal option." 

Other UK cities have looked into staging the event. London conducted a feasibility study following meetings in 2014, while Liverpool was the only UK city to have a presence at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

The UK and any other bidding countries will need to put forward their candidate city by the 31 October 2016.

In the Netherlands, Rotterdam has been working on a bid. The project has the support of Rabobank Executive Board member Jan van Nieuwenhuizen, who says, “Young people want to give meaning to their lives... The Expo should inspire this generation of the future.”

France is considering a bid for 2025 World Expo, with Paris Mayor Anne Hildago and President Hollande having given their support. However, Paris is also bidding for the 2024 Olympic Games and staging both events in consecutive years would be an unprecedented challenge.

The Japanese city of Osaka, which hosted the 1970 World Expo, is also reported to be bidding for the 2025 edition - which would come five years after Tokyo's staging of the Olympic Games.

Toronto, which hosted a successful Pan-American Games in 2015, is also evaluating an Expo bid. However, city mayor John Tory has said he will only back the bid if the government gives assurance that they will cover any shortfall in private sector funding, and local support for such a publicly funded project is just 22 per cent. In order to bid, Canada would also need to rejoin the BIE.

Proponents of the Manchester bid say it is an opportunity to rebalance the national economy by reviving the “Northern Powerhouse” regional development strategy proposed by the previous government.

The Expo would take place on a 250-acre (110 ha) industrial site at Ashton Moss in Tameside, less than 10km from Manchester city centre and within 15km of Manchester airport.

“This bid has already been seen by Treasury who recognise its value but were not at the time of the last budget in a position to back it,” said Jake Berry, MP for nearby Rossendale and Darwen.

“If our new Prime Minister Theresa May is serious about continuing with the Northern Powerhouse it’s big ideas like 2025 Expo that the Government has to give its support to.

“This is a once in a generation opportunity to rebalance our economy and promote the Northern Powerhouse as a global brand. The Government saw fit to spend £9bn on bringing the Olympics to London. This seems to be a better investment.”

The north of England is also working towards the first “Great Exhibition of the North” in 2018, with Blackpool, Bradford, Newcastle-Gateshead or Sheffield due to be named as the host this autumn. 

World Expos takes place every five years and last for six months.  The cost of staging the 2025 World Expo in the UK has been estimated to be more than £1bn, but the Greater Manchester Combined Authority points out that recent World Expos have all more than covered costs through ticketing revenues and that “private sector contributions” could be explored for 2025.

The next World Expo will be held in Dubai in 2020. Looking beyond 2025, the Korean city of Busan has already stated its intention to bid for the 2030 World Expo.