Luís Castro Henriques: Portugal Pavilion at Expo Dubai has “over 300 thousand visitors” | Expo 2020 Dubai
Expo 2020 Dubai kicked off in October and, three months later, Luís Castro Henriques, the general commissioner of Portugal for the world exhibition, makes a “very positive assessment” of the Portuguese presence. “We’ve already had more than 300,000 visitors to today’s data, in fact the Pavilion has a lot of notoriety, it has a lot of demand, the feedback we have from the visitors is very interesting, because not only is an immersive component impressive, but also the part. personalized”, continues the president of the Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal (AICEP).
Luís Castro Henriques reports that visitors leave the Pavilhão de Portugal saying: “Ah, funny, I learned something about Portugal that I wasn’t expecting”.
For the official, this demonstrates “a lot of interest, especially from people who have never spoken about Portugal” and who, after being at the Pavilhão de Portugal, express their intention to visit the country. “Therefore, this is a good result”, she emphasizes.
In addition, “we have three months full of activities, several themed weeks, we have several artists, from musical moments, we also have a set of decorative pieces in the pavilion of various artists”, including Joana Vasconcelos, “who, in fact , they surprise people, people like it”, concludes Luís Castro Henriques. “We have also had a lot of demand and many visits to the store, the appeal to good Portuguese products”, points out the commissioner-general.
Recently, the Portugal Pavilion was subject to flooding due to heavy rains that were felt in Dubai. “It’s been completely resolved, there was a very big and unexpected storm, much bigger than expected, and that affected the electrical system”, explains Luís Castro Henriques. For reasons, mainly security, the exhibition content had to be closed, as it is all digital, for three days. However, the Portugal Pavilion “never closed” and was receiving people, where it was explained what was going on. “Today everything is open and everything is working”, he concludes.
With the motto “Portugal, a world in a country”, the Pavilhão de Portugal has an area of 1800 square meters, where there is no lack of Portuguese pavement, chairs and cork lamps, tiles, a terrace with olive trees and a “concept store” , which aims to be a transactional “embassy” for the promotion of Portuguese brands and products, with more than 170 distinctive products.
The pavilion, inspired by a caravel, is a project resulting from a partnership between Grupo Casais and the studio Saraiva + Associados, and is located in the sustainability district of Expo, one of the three thematic areas.
Expo Dubai, which ends on March 31, is the first big mega event since the start of the pandemic, where 25 million visitors are expected. It brings together more than 200 participants, including 192 countries, as well as multilateral organizations, companies and education companies for 182 days. Located in the south of Dubai, the site covers 4.38 square kilometers, of which around two square kilometers are closed.
The “heart” of the Expo is the Al Wasl square, which has a dome 130 meters wide and 67.5 meters high, covering a space of 724,000 cubic meters, according to the organization. This corresponds to the volume of nearly 300 Olympic swimming pools – and is taller than the Tower of Pisa.
The project has 13.6 kilometers of steel, equivalent to the height of 16 Burj Khalifas (the tallest tower in the world, at 828 meters, located in Dubai), weighs 2,544 tons, the same as 25 blue whales and is almost as wide as two Airbus A380s adapted wing to wing.
The three thematic areas of Expo 2020, opportunity, mobility and sustainability, are presented in the form of petals, like which converge in Al Wasl square.