Express entry to pavilions plan expands
- Source: Global Times
- [09:28 May 17 2010]
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By Ni Dandan and Chen Xiaoru
The Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA) has been working hard to promote its city pavilions and get visitors to the Puxi section of the World Expo Park, using Expo passports as bait to give tourists express entry into pop-ular pavilions in Pudong.
Three Spanish cities, namely Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao, are hoping to offer visitors to their three pavilions in Puxi a convenient pass to the Spain Pavilion in the Pudong section.
"Once they collect the stamps of the three city pavilions on their souvenir Expo passports, they'll be allowed into our national pavilion through the VIP entrance," Du Guangkai, media director of the Madrid Pavilion, told the Global Times Sunday.
He said that they have been waiting for final approval from the organizers and that an official announcement would be made today or tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Canadian city pavilions in the area are working on similar plans as visitors with stamps from both the Vancouver and Montreal Pavilion will be allowed direct entrance into the Canada Pavilion.
Media coordinator for the Vancouver Pavilion, Tao Liang, told the Global Times that, "special gifts would also be handed out in a further effort to attract more visitors."
"Policies made to attract more visitors will be announced on Tuesday," said Li Xin, an official with the UBPA organizing team. The official added that roughly ten percent of the visitors to the Expo Park went to the UBPA in the Puxi section over the last two weeks.
However, the Spain Pavilion is not the first to implement such an incentive. Ever since the Expo Park officially opened on May 1, the Germany Pavilion has been allowing express entrance to visitors that have collected the four Germany city pavilion stamps in the UBPA.
"I've never heard of it. I'll definitely consider it now that I know," said 27-year-old Li Qin, who spent nearly three hours queuing up for access into the Germany Pavilion on Saturday, a day when the total number of Expo visitors hit a record high of 335,000.
Previous media reports said that if visitors get 15 stamps from pavilions in the UBPA, they can enter the China Pavilion without reservations. But when reached by the Global Times Sunday, a spokesperson for the Shanghai Expo, Xu Wei, denied the reports.
Many other countries including the US, Korea, Japan, UK, Italy and Brazil also have city pavilions in the UBPA, showcasing high-tech and environmentally friendly exhibits. Though the national pavilions have been besieged by long queues, congestion has not been a problem in the UBPA.
