Tourism Breaking News
The France Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai records its first million visitors since it’s opening on October 1st, 2021, boosted by events dedicated to international visitors and B2B audiences. With three months left, the France Pavilion is more involved than ever to provide a memorable experience for all visitors. Alongside the permanent exhibition, two temporary exhibitions are in the pipeline, each one dedicated to an artistic expertise: “Grand Paris Express” under the theme of architecture from January 20th to February 21st (by the Société du Grand Paris x Dominique Perrault) and “Jean Paul Gaultier from A to Z”, an exceptional retrospective of the enfant terrible de la mode’s 50 years of career from February 28th to March 31st.
The first three-months were kicked off with France National Day on October 2nd, a special day confirming that the pavilion is an unforgettable showcase for French excellence, promoting innovations, talents and assets of our sponsors and stakeholders. For several years now, the Pavilion has been supported by the best representatives of French savoir-faire through our ambassador sponsors ENGIE and Orange, with the ambition of transmitting to visitors from all over the world French values of being bold, optimistic, and ensuring a sense of community.
This special day was then followed by many events structured around twelve themed fortnights to raise public awareness about the challenges of tomorrow and to highlight French initiatives in terms of biodiversity, climate, peace, space, and consumption, to name a few. In result to these fortnights, the France Pavilion also organized panel discussions in collaboration with the French community, the UAE University, French institutions such as OFB and CEREMA; masterclass; workshops and photo exhibitions: throwback in our newsroom
The France Pavilion is an exceptional meeting place to develop France economic attractiveness, create connections, strengthen France’s influence all around the world and promote its French companies. The France Pavilion hosted more than 140 B2B events on the Belvedere terrace, at the initiative of its sponsors and partners, startups (in partnership with Business France), institutions, and foundations.
All the sponsors and stakeholders came to the France Pavilion during these first three months, at the occasion of the France National Day and/or for special events. In addition, the Pavilion is particularly honored to have hosted several CEOs of its main sponsors: Catherine McGregor, CEO of our ambassador sponsor ENGIE and Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, Chairman of the board of Directors, Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of EDF, Philippe Baptiste, CEO of CNES, Eric Scotto, CEO of Akuo Energy, Sébastien Bougon, CEO of FLYING WHALES, Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal Group, and Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman of the board of directors of L’Oréal, Catherine Guillouard, CEO of RATP, Franck Lebouchard, CEO of Devialet, Aymeric Duthoit, CEO of Duvivier Canapés, Francois Peyrac, CEO of Les Compagnons du Miel, Patrick Chalhoub CEO of Chalhoub Group, Jean Yves Berthon, CEO of Greentech, Evrard de Ponnat, CEO of Igienair, Jean-Christophe Ragni, Associate director of Ragni, Antoine Petit, CEO of CNRS, François Taddei, Founder of Learning Planet Institute, Olivier Chiabodo, CEO of The Explorers and Valérie Decamp, CEO of MEDIATRANSPORTS.
All these events took place at the Belvedere, an exceptional event host venue of 1,000m² composed of an agora, a showroom, an auditorium with a capacity of over 130 people, and meeting rooms. Moreover, the Belvedere has a large panoramic terrace that overlooks the Expo site: click here to host an event
From October to December 2021, the France Pavilion received a total of 230 international delegations, representing 1,200 government leaders from all over the world: presidents, prime ministers and heads of state, ministers, etc. This large number of delegations illustrates the extent to which this World Expo ranks as a major international event. These visits were an opportunity to strengthen international cooperation with many countries and to advance the search for solutions to the great challenges facing humanity.
In three months, Erik Linquier, Commissioner General for France at Expo 2020 Dubai and Chairman of Cofrex, also welcomed on December 3rd the French President of France Emmanuel Macron, as well as many members of his government, to promote French talent at the Dubai World Expo including – Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs; Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy, Finance and Recovery; Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces; Roselyne Bachelot, Minister of Culture; Franck Riester, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in charge of Foreign Trade and Attractiveness; Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, Minister Delegate to the Minister for Ecological Transition, in charge of Transport; Roxana Maracineanu, and Alain Griset, then Minister Delegate to the Minister for the Economy, Finance and Recovery, in charge of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. All in all, the Pavilion welcomed 30 French institutional delegations.
