BEIJING // The UAE's dramatic pavilion at Expo 2012 at Yeosu in South Korea is attracting a share of the tens of thousands of visitors each day.
The maritime-themed pavilion is one of several produced by Middle East countries, with Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and Qatar also taking part at the event on South Korea's south coast.
Hana Moon, an expo public relations officer, said the event as a whole had attracted a good response from the public since its opening on Saturday, adding that organisers were expecting crowds to grow once the holiday season started. The overall target is for attendances to reach 8 million over the three months of the expo.
"The expo has just opened and we've had around 40,000 [visitors] a day," she said. "Many international visitors are coming right now."
Ms Moon said, following earlier rain, the current "really nice" weather at the expo site was also helping to ensure the event proved popular.
There was a strong contingent of foreign countries and international organisations taking part in the event, she added, with some organising their own shows for visitors.
While the UAE pavilion at the Shanghai Expo two years ago was shaped like a sand dune, in South Korea the pavilion is themed around "the living ocean and coast", as is the expo as a whole. It includes a timeline detailing key events in the UAE's 41-year history.
The award-winning Shanghai pavilion proved a hit with visitors, with more than two million enjoying a dramatic audio-visual display during the six months that the expo ran.
dbardsley@thenational.ae
