World’s Fair Visits Below Projections
LISBON, Portugal — Fewer than 50,000 people per day--less than half the expected number--visited the world’s fair in Lisbon during its first 50 days, according to published figures.
Organizers had predicted a total of 13 million visits between opening day on May 22 and the last day, Sept. 30. But Expo ’98 has so far received just 2.4 million visits.
“Our studies were too optimistic,” spokeswoman Clara Ferreira Alves conceded.
The fair, billed as the biggest world’s fair yet, cost about $2 billion and included a massive 815-acre urban regeneration project around the riverside site on the eastern side of the city.
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