Malaga loses bid to host Expo 2027

Malaga's hopes to host the international exhibition Expo 2027 were shattered this Wednesday when the assembly of countries of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Paris slected Belgrade as the winning bid.

Malaga was competing against Bloomington (United States), Phuket (Thailand), Belgrade (Serbia) and San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina). The first bid to be ruled out in the initial voting was Argentina's, followed by Thailand and the US, which had initially appeared to be the project with the most support. Malaga got through to the final round of voting but failed to get enough support to beat Serbia. Málaga's bid gained 70 votes and Belgrado's 81, a difference of 11 votes.

Malaga had been the first to address the assembly to present its final bid to host the 2027 international exhibition. This was the third and final presentation of the Spanish proposal The Urban Era: Towards the Sustainable City, before the vote took place late on Wednesday morning to find out which city will be selected to host the world event.

As last November, the Malaga presentation was developed by a production company of actor Antonio Banderas who, unlike then, on this occasion did not intervene, although he did publish a message of support on his Twitter account.

Hosted by journalist María Casado, the highlights of the intervention were a virtual reality montage that allowed a futuristic walk through the circular enclosure of the pavilions projected on the area known as Buenavista, next to the Guadalhorce motorway, alongside the extension of Malaga university.

The presentation included messages of support from sportsmen Pau Gasol and Sergio Ramos, actress Paz Vega and singer Luz Casal, who closed the presentation with a performance of the song Un Lugar Perfecto, devoted to the promotion of tourism in Malaga and which the artist wrote during her stay in the city during her confinement due to the pandemic.

Luz Casal's performance received a standing ovation and applause to round off a presentation that the mayor, Francisco de la Torre, began by stressing that Malaga's proposal has the broad support of the social and business fabric, and that the city offers "safety in the streets".

"We want our visitors to be happy and to help other countries," said the mayor, who pointed out that the Malaga Expo would have a business centre and serve to address the global challenges of "environmental, social and economic sustainability". De la Torre also pointed out that, once the Expo is over, the site could become a centre for "education, innovation and entrepreneurship". "Don't hesitate, vote for Málaga", he concluded in a speech in Spanish.

The president of the provincial council (Diputación) Francisco Salado, who had problems with his microphone, took over the floor from De la Torre to emphasise that its "international and mixed character makes the Costa del Sol the perfect social laboratory to study sustainability and urban development". "Our main product is happiness, as one of the great tourist destinations in Europe," he said.

Next, a video showed an Asian visitor from Osaka arriving in Malaga and taking a tour of its main monuments and tourist sites. Stopping in front of a display about Expo 2027 located next to the Cathedral, this traveller becomes a sort of 'avatar' who, thanks to virtual reality, is introduced into the pavilion area of the proposed Expo and walks through it to show in detail what some of the most important spaces would be like, such as the Spanish pavilion, the auditorium and the central park.

After the screening, Carmen Bueno, director of the thematic pavilions of Expo 92 in Seville and consultant for Malaga's candidacy, spoke in English, explaining that, in 2027, "we will be three years away from the review of the 2030 agenda". "All the experts agree that local action against climate change is needed. We need a platform to talk about innovation and sustainable development. Malaga is the perfect place for this," said this expert in international exhibitions.

Jerónimo Blasco, one of the main architects of Expo Zaragoza 2008, then took the floor. He spoke in French about some of the characteristics of the exhibition site, which he described as "a magnificent space" that would have a residential area for workers seven minutes away on foot.

María Casado then gave way to videos in support of the candidacy recorded by the sportsmen Pau Gasol and Sergio Ramos and actress Paz Vega. In the November presentation to the assembly of countries, a video with the support of tennis player Rafa Nadal was also shown.

The last to speak, before the participation of Luz Casal, were the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, who went to Paris together with the regional minister of economy, Carolina España, and the Spanish minister of foreign affairs, José Manuel Albares.

Moreno stressed that Malaga's project for Expo 2027 "offers the best solution to a critical moment in which the whole of humanity finds itself in order to guarantee the survival of the planet". In this sense, he pointed out the challenge of mitigating the effects of climate change by making a "commitment to innovation and sustainability". "We have everything ready to welcome you with open arms and show you that another world is necessary and possible," he said.

For his part, José Manuel Albares stressed that Malaga is "a city of reference in terms of innovation and culture" and that it is the centre of a large metropolitan area. "Expo 2027 will be a unique opportunity to propose a new model of life," he concluded.

Delegates from the 179 countries represented at the assembly in Paris voted for their favourite bidding city later on Wednesday morning. In the end they decided that, while Malaga may be "the perfect place" to host an international exhibition in four years' time, Belgrade was their favourite by just a few votes.