Baltic Export, China, Forum, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Tourism

According to the Aerodium representatives, the country's name was widely circulated in the media during the exhibition, and Latvia's pavilion received far greater interest than those of its neighbors, writes LETA.

Egle noted that the pavilion had been visited by media representatives on a daily basis, and TV reports were filmed there every week. A television show was also filmed there, and Aerodium representatives also took part in six more shows, the most popular of which was watched by seven million people. "There was even a curious situation where representatives of the Lithuanian pavilion came to us, asking us to let the media know that the exhibition also had a pavilion from Lithuania," said Egle.

"We heard rumors that the Lithuanian pavilion had received many more visitors than Latvia's; however, in effect many of the pavilions fulfilled a 'corridor' function, where people simply passed through without paying much attention to what was happening there. People spent much more time at the Latvian pavilion. By all accounts Latvia is now in fashion in Shanghai. When I was on a visit to the city's highest building, someone noticed the small Latvia badge I was wearing and cried out: 'Latvia. The ones who fly!'" said Beitans.

The Aerodium representatives are convinced that Latvia has won serious international recognition which should now be put to use. "People took a lot of photographs and video clips of our pavilion. An independent agency carried out a study which found that the Latvian pavilion was the fourth most popular 'World Expo' pavilion by 'Youtube' viewer numbers after Japan's, Australia's and the U.K.'s. It should also be kept in mind that 'Youtube' is banned in China," said Egle.

Beitans indicated that Latvia had become a brand in China and that this should now be strengthened. The businessman feels that this market should be told about Latvia as a technologically-able country, and that efforts should now be made to export Latvian products to China. "Businessmen should not doze, but should think about how to offer their products to China, which has been unaffected by the crisis," said the Aerodium director.