Dubai to find out if pandemic-delayed Expo 2020 will pay off

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A computer-graphic-soaked advertisement featuring Australian actor and Hollywood heartthrob Chris Hemsworth beckons the world to Dubai's upcoming Expo 2020, promising a “world of pure imagination” as children without facemasks race across a futuristic carnival scene.

Reality, however, crashes into the frame in all capital-letters caption at the bottom of the screen, saying: “THIS COMMERCIAL WAS FILMED IN 2019."

Delayed a year over the coronavirus pandemic, Dubai's Expo 2020 opens on Friday, pushing this city-state all-in on its bet of billions of dollars that the world's fair will boost its economy. The sheikhdom built what feels like an entire city out of what once were rolling sand dunes on its southern edges to support the fair, an outpost that largely will be disassembled after the six-month event ends in March.

But questions about the Expo's drawing power in the modern era began even before the pandemic. It will be one of the world's first global events, following an Olympics this summer that divided host nation Japan and took place without spectators. Though Dubai has thrown open its doors to tourists from around the world and has not required vaccinations, it remains unclear how many guests will be coming to this extravaganza.

For some, Expo 2020 has become a $7-billion metaphor for the United Arab Emirates — a futuristic site to draw the world's well-to-do, built by low-paid foreign workers, to fête a federation of sheikhdoms where speech and assembly remains strictly controlled.

Expo 2020 declined to make any official available to speak to The Associated Press prior to the opening. The organizers also did not respond to a series of questions by the AP about the event, instead emailing back a brief statement.

“We have built...