Dubai won on Wednesday the right to host World Expo 2020 at the 154th General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Paris.

In the third and last round of voting, Dubai beat Russia's Yekaterinburg, becoming the first Middle Eastern city to host the event. The other two candidate cities, the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo and Turkey's Izmir, were eliminated respectively in the first and second round.

Dubai Expo 2020 will be held from Oct. 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021 with the theme "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future."

The Expo will take place on a 438-hectare site on the southwestern edge of Dubai, which will be divided into three areas dedicated to each sub-theme. The number of visitors is expected to be 25 million, according to the Dubai World Expo 2020 Bid Committee.

Dubai is home to around 2.2 million people, of which 90 percent are foreigners. The emirate has established its economy as a hub for trade, tourism, banking and civil aviation in the Middle East.