Liverpool World Expo pavilion the best, says UKTI

UK Trade and Investment has praised Liverpool's pavilion claiming it as the most popular attraction amongst the other cities in the Urban Best Practice Area at the World Expo in Shanghai.

Around 2,000 people are passing through the stand each day according to the organisers, which they said is treble the number of visitors to other city pavilions in the area including the likes of Venice and Pondicherry in India.

At a UK Trade and Investment reception in the pavilion last night, Clive Drinkwater, North West director of UKTI, said: "I have been around the other pavilions and they are not a patch on Liverpool. The pavilion is teaching people things about the North West region which they did not know about."

The reception was attended by a host of Chinese and European business figures including representatives of Peel Holdings, the pavilion's lead sponsor at the World Expo having paid £100,000.

Last week, Silver sponsorship packages, totalling £24,000, had been confirmed with architect practices BDP and Brock Carmichael, and Liverpool PR agency Paver Smith.

Architects BDP designed the £1.1m pavilion with Uniform, which won a £600,000 design and build contract to work alongside BDP.

Digital content makers River Media has created a number of films to help sell the city to visitors and investors.

Liverpool is the only UK city to have a dedicated pavilion at the World Expo which started last week (1 May) and is expected to attract more than 70 million visitors over its six month duration.

Liverpool's participation in the event is being led by Liverpool Vision in partnership with the North West Development Agency, Liverpool City Council and the Liverpool-Shanghai Partnership.

The World Expo runs until 31 October this year.