Portugal Pavilion receives over 40,000 visits in three weeks
Portugal’s Commissioner-General said today, in statements to Lusa, that the Portuguese Pavilion has already had “around 42,000 visits” since Expo 2020 Dubai kicked off on October 1st.
“The Pavilion has already had about 42 thousand visits. Considering that yesterday [Friday] Expo as a whole celebrated 700 thousand visits, it means we are not very far from our average goal, which is to be at around 7% of visitors,” stated Luís Castro Henriques.
“In this sense it has gone well. We have also seen several patterns of visits that are interesting, as is obvious with the temperature we have throughout this month, there are many more visits at night than during the day,” said the Commissioner-General and also president of the Portuguese Trade & Investment Agency (AICEP).
Lusa found that the number of visitors increases at the end of the day, due to high temperatures above 35 degrees, which makes walking at Expo often painful.
Located in the south of Dubai, the site covers 4.38 square kilometers, of which around two square kilometers are closed areas.
Luís Castro Henriques stressed that the feedback from visitors to the Portugal Pavilion – with an area of 1,800 square meters – “has been very positive”. Therefore, “I’m satisfied”, he said, noting that “in the last week” there was “a very big increase”, considering that now it should stabilize: “I hope above the high-3,000s”.
Nearing one month of Expo 2020 Dubai, the Commissioner-General says the result so far has been very positive. “First, the operation started right from the beginning, it is a relevant operation, with everything prepared and I believe that this is a real victory”, highlighted Luís Castro Henriques.
The second aspect is that visitors “are pleased”, he stressed, pointing out that visitor traffic is in line with what they were expecting.
The third “is that in the span of these past three weeks, we have already hosted a set of events here in the Pavilion”, as well as a “series of high-level visits, from members of the Government of Portugal, but also from many other countries”, he stressed.
The combination of “the ICT [information and communication technologies] week”, which took place this week, as well as “the inauguration that will happen tomorrow [Sunday], in the scope of the United Nations Day”, after today’s events in celebration of the European Union Day, “in fact, a lot has been done in three weeks”, he concluded.
In regards to the upcoming event on Sunday, Luís Castro Henriques pointed out that there will be the inauguration of a work of art, which he did not want to elaborate on, although it is already visible.
“This is a partnership between AICEP and the Portugal Pavilion with the Mission Structure” for the commemoration of the 500 years of the circumnavigation of Ferdinand Magellan, “in which we will present a work of art alluding precisely to this theme, and to the fact that this was an expedition undertaken by the Portuguese to connect the world and to connect the peoples of the world, which is exactly the theme of our Pavilion “Portugal, a world in one country”, but also the theme of the entire Expo,” he continued.
Of the questions asked to visitors on the way out, the Commissioner-General classifies as “very interesting” that after having the experience at the Pavilion, they admit that they have never been to Portugal, but that “after this” they intend to visit the country.
“Therefore, this is a first positive effect, after the interactions we have had over time with institutional visitors, what we notice is that they understand the message very well” of “21st-century Portugal and what it is like” that we complete very well and we follow this 500-year tradition of connecting people,” he continued. Basically, they are discovering that Portugal is an “open, competitive country, dedicated to a series of sectors that are highly competitive and innovative, and that it is succeeding in the world”.
On the future initiatives of the Portugal Pavilion, Luís Castro Henriques said that the cultural and musical agenda will continue until the end of the year.
“We’re going to have a month [in November] dedicated to the Home sector (…), but also a set of craft activities or and we’re also going to have interactions with designers, so, deep down, we’re going to demonstrate our ability to to innovate through ‘design’ and to combine, above all, tradition and innovation”, he said.
“In the middle of this, we will also obviously be talking about sustainability here at Expo. I believe we have a very interesting month ahead, in November, in terms of content, then we will have fashion during the month of December, from clothing to jewelry” he revealed. “We have two months ahead of us with many sectors in the spotlight and I’m sure we have excellent moments in store to showcase Portugal to visitors”, summed up Luís Castro Henriques.