How EXPO'98 was born
The idea to organise an international exposition event in Lisbon emerged in the first months of 1989 as a means of commemorating the five hundredth anniversary of the maritime voyages of discovery of the Portuguese seafarers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The Portuguese believed that the five hundredth anniversary of the sea voyage of Vasco da Gama to India – being a feat which became a decisive event in the building of the image of our modern world – would amply justify a great celebration of universal character to commemorate a far-reaching meeting of civilisations that would come to shape the last five centuries of world history.
At the time, the country was busy preparing Portugal’s representation at the Seville World Exposition of 1992 and the idea to put together an international exposition of its own was submitted to the Portuguese Government in 1989, having obtained its agreement to the project in the autumn of that year.
Originally, the idea was to organise a specialised international exposition on a 50 hectare site somewhere in or around Lisbon that was capable of hosting representation by about 60 countries. A formal application for the registration of the event to take place in 1998 was submitted to the BIE – the Bureau International des Expositions, which is headquartered in Paris, by the end of 1989. Portugal appointed an inter-ministerial commission for the purpose of conducting the required economic and financial impact studies and to produce detailed project designs.
1990 was a decisive year for laying out the exposition project’s master guidelines, which were put together on the initiative of the Government with the assistance of Lisbon’s City Council which naturally was already greatly committed to the event.
When designing the broad concept for the EXPO, it became very important from the outset to make the Lisbon World Exposition stand out when compared to other events of the same type which had recently taken place, based on a core theme that was to become the mainstay of the exposition.
Bearing that goal in mind, a rather ambitious thematic platform was proposed subject to the overriding goal of focusing the Exposition on the planet’s oceans and their great diversity, and on bringing the key role they play in balancing the globe to the attention of the world – after all, and in the first place, the world at large is indeed the party that should be the most interested in participating in an exposition of this nature.
Therefore, the planners abandoned a sheer historical perspective to rather broaden that core theme to include the perspective of the oceans’ future role – thereby relating oceans to science and politics, and to technological advance and the arts. The objective became then to rather propose to the world the adoption of new ethics in mankind’s relationship with the environment, which, besides, was already a key theme in the international political agenda for the oncoming twenty-first century.
On the other hand, it also soon became apparent that the country needed to work hard to prevent the wastage of resources that had been a characteristic leftover of so many other international expositions taking place during the twentieth century. So another core concept emerged – to make the exposition not just a festive event, but a useful one too, for both the hosting city and the country, and for the international community at large.
And, in this context, the option to locate the site in Lisbon’s eastern area – a site that was a huge, derelict and polluted expanse at the time – fully met those master objectives.
Outdated industrial facilities, oil reservoirs, old military warehouses, a discontinued abattoir, and even an open-sky rubbish dump would give way for the implementation of an entirely novel concept in urban development that would allow Lisbon to recover a prime strip of territory extending for about 5 km, right along the Tagus River, subsequent to the end of the Exposition.
By the beginning of 1991, a Bid Committee was appointed to prepare Lisbon’s application, which was to be submitted side by side with an alternative application by the Canadian city of Toronto, which had, in the meantime, equally applied to host the event that same year. The aforementioned Committee was most successful, having managed to secure the selection of Lisbon as the stage to host the last international and thematic world exposition of this kind to take place during the twentieth century. At the BIE’s Annual General Meeting of 23 June 1992, Portugal’s bid won by 23 votes in its favour against 18 votes for Toronto.
Beginning 1993, the EXPO project was stepped up a gear and entered the design and development stage – the site’s thematic layout was developed, the international promotion strategy was devised, the first internal awareness campaigns were launched, and negotiations began for vacating the site where the future Exposition would be erected.
A number of development stages followed through – still in 1993, the EXPO Project Committee was appointed and Parque EXPO '98, S.A. was launched and mandated to proceed with and implement the entire development; subsequently, the general urban development plan for a vast area of 330 ha, including the site of the exposition itself, which was then being projected to occupy about 50 ha, was approved; lastly, the idea to proclaim 1998 as the International Year of the Oceans under the umbrella of UNESCO was launched, and this proposal would be approved by the UN by the end of 1994.
That same year saw the approval of the exposition site development plan, comprising the theme pavilions and the international zones; negotiations for the construction of modules to be made freely available to participants, and to be allocated, in future, to Lisbon’s Feira Internacional de Lisboa – the city’s International Showground, started; the Exposition’s "showpiece", being the most modern aquarium of the world to be christened Lisbon’s Oceanarium was defined and contracted for, with construction beginning in earnest towards the end of 1994; and the demolition works to vacate the EXPO site began that year too.
1995 and 1996 were two years of project consolidation and intense construction. Little by little, the site was fully cleared of all discontinued facilities and encumbrances and the grounds started taking shape as construction of the North and South International Zones, the Pavilion of Portugal, the Pavilion of the Future, the Pavilion of Knowledge of the Seas, and the vast, multi-modal Oriente Transport Station – which constitutes a veritable “lung" of multi-modal public transport systems providing access to the EXPO '98 showground – began.
The first major international awareness campaigns were launched and the EXPO organisation set out a new target of hosting up to 100 exhibitor countries and organisations (which number ended up reaching a total of 160); the projected site was expanded in order to accommodate a larger number of participants and the major road access systems were designed, while work progressed on construction of a new subway line leading directly to the Exposition; and work began on the construction of the Vila EXPO in the site’s northern area – being a set of apartment blocks destined to house personnel and international exhibitors.
1997 was, in fact, the most decisive year of all – it was the year when expectations were far exceeded, both concerning the final number of exhibitors, and with respect to the volume of funding obtained from sponsorships.
That year, construction of the Camões Theatre, the Virtual Reality Pavilion, and the Video-Stadium/ Sony Plaza began.
Everything started moving at an ever faster pace that year – the assembling of a variety of structures, approval for a 100 Days Festival Program, the drafting of the Exposition’s entertainment features, negotiations with catering and restaurant services to be operate on the site, paving works throughout the site, and the placing of orders for various Urban Artworks to be on display on site. It all started to come together.
Finally, 1998 arrived and the "final touches" could be added – the colours, the shapes, and the myriad details that made the EXPO '98 so much more than a mere exposition site. It grew to become a veritable city within a city, an utopian place, surely, and yet a very real place where, for over four and a half months, over 12 million people would come to meet and enjoy the vision of a unique environment dedicated to the Oceans in what would become one of the last great celebrations of the departing millennium.
Visitor comments
EXPO '98 was a tremendous success and its organisation was about nearly flawless. The great majority of visitor comments received were indeed rather positive. The following indicators, based on opinion surveys, deserve particular highlight:
52% of visitors enjoyed the EXPO and 43% enjoyed it a lot.
Those percentages add up to an overall approval rate of 95%; the remainder 5% of visitors who had not enjoyed it were evenly distributed between those that liked it "so-so" and those that "did not like it at all".
Out of a total of 20 marks, about 70% of visitors scored the Exposition at between 16 to 20 marks, while 82% of visitors stated their intention to come back for another visit and 97.5% would gladly recommend it to a friend. About 65% of visitors stated that the EXPO '98 had made a very positive contribution to Portugal’s development.
The number of visitors to the Expo Site reached a total of 10,128,204. This number does not include entries by accredited staff and exhibitors, which inclusion makes the above mentioned total rise by a further 2,080,000 entries, thus bringing the grand total in number of visitors to a little over twelve million two hundred thousand visitors.
However, the total number of visitors still came below expectations due to two factors having an simultaneous, adverse impact – on the one hand, the weather that year was rather poor during May and almost all of June, leading many potential visitors to delay visiting the EXPO to later on that summer; and, secondly, the fact that the 1998 World Football Cup was taking place in France that same summer equally led many people to rather stay home watching the games on TV in all comfort.
The Oceans, an Asset for the Future
A large part of the success of the EXPO '98 owes to the excellence and great timing of the theme that was chosen as the Exposition’s base theme. A combination of the historical maritime orientation of the Portuguese as a people with the fact that by 1998 exactly 500 years had elapsed since the arrival of Vasco da Gama in India could not have been more becoming.
In turn, international interest and participation in the EXPO '98 was also very positively impacted by the Oceans theme, since international awareness of the fact that the seas are an irreplaceable feature of life on Earth, and that they demand great attention and very special care to prevent their progressive or even increasing degradation to a point of no return, has been on the increase.
The United Nations declared 1998 as International Year of the Oceans and, in the context of that initiative, an Independent International Commission for the Oceans was appointed and chaired by the former President of Portugal, Dr. Mário Soares. The day on which that Commission’s report was formally presented at the UN – the 1st of September 1998 – was a major highlight for Lisbon’s EXPO.
Country and Organisation Participants
As concerns the number of countries and organisations participating in the event, their total reached 160, which not only far exceeded the originally number envisaged but was also largely in excess of the number of exhibitors present at the prior two international Expositions, namely in Seville and Seoul, respectively.
Reaching a record number of participants, as came to be the case, was an objective that was keenly pursued with the assistance of various governmental entities, of which we highlight Portugal’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of the Economy (the latter through its ICEP Agency). The EXPO Organisation was greatly committed to bring to Lisbon the highest possible number of country exhibitors as a means of widening the opportunity for different cultures and civilisations to meet in a single place, and that was one of the most notable achievements of the EXPO '98.
Special facilities were put in place to enable participation by many countries that could only avail of weaker resources. Some of the measures and facilities on offer that were of great assistance in achieving the exposition’s success in that regard included the provision of exhibition stands and facilities at no cost, the arranging of special pricing for lodging of personnel, and the provision of ready-made "standard-project" designs for organising and setting up exhibits inside the pavilions.
Cultural and Sports Facilities on Offer
In order to commemorate the EXPO’s main theme – the Oceans, an Asset for the Future – great efforts were put on the design of the thematic pavilions and their respective exhibits as concerns the Ex[position’s thematic features – namely, its Pavilion of the Oceans, Pavilion of Knowledge of the Sea, Pavilion of the Future, Pavilion of Utopia, and Pavilion of Portugal – and those specialised pavilions were complemented by a Nautical Exhibition, a number of thematic gardened areas like the Garcia de Orta Gardens and the Water Gardens, and many other features such as the Oceans Boulevard, the Water Volcano features, and the Doca dos Olivais. In addition, a large number of Urban Artworks was commissioned for public display, and the exposition took advantage of the site’s bordering riverfront area along the Tagus River to organise a Nautical Exhibition with over 320 boats. A host of countries maintained their pavilions in operation in that area.
Inside the Exposition site, the offer of cultural entertainment translated into the offering of over 10,000 entertainment sessions, including a variety of open-air shows and performances at the Camões Theatre and the Adrenaline Pavilion, and the sessions of the Marina Show, plus all the performances held inside the pavilions of many exhibitors.
Artistic shows of a temporary nature were held at the various stages available on site and they were attended by over 16.5 million spectators. The offer of permanent shows for the duration of the Exposition comprised three productions – the Olharapos Show, the Pilgrimage Show, and the Acqua Matrix Show, which jointly held 1,908 performances attended by 8.7 million spectators.
Still concerning cultural entertainment, two festivals being held outside the showground deserve highlight:
The 100 Day Festival – an awareness-raising event hosted as a prelude to the World Exposition, marking the counting of days to the start of the event. It consisted on a voyage of cultural discovery of the twentieth century through a plethora of artistic creations, including music, dancing, opera, movie, literature, and theatre performances.
The Dive into the Future Festival – which also involved a variety of cultural disciplines, namely dancing, theatre, music, and video shows and performances, focused on the concerns of the end of the century and the beginning of the new Millennium, as well as aiming to revitalise the aesthetics of various artistic forms on display by going beyond the routes being made possible by the use of new technologies and the consequent transformation of the degree of experimentation and reinvention conveyed through novel aesthetic projects and proposals.
Finally, sports activities featured with about one hundred sports events comprising both competitions and simple exhibitions of athletic skills – those included athletics competitions, sailing regattas, a range of canoeing and kayak competitions, various races and performances (by "dragon-boats", for instance), gymnastics and fitness shows, the final stage of the "Round The World Rally" and the departure of the “Millennium Odyssey" regatta, an International Squash Open, a World Ballooning Award, horse jumping, acrobatics, events around the Mundialito Football Cup, street basket, and the "Lisbon Sail '98" regatta.
Promotions, Marketing, and Sponsorships
Marketing an event like a World Exposition implies overcoming two major constraints which naturally also applied in the case of EXPO '98. Firstly, it is necessary to raise the awareness of, divulge to, and subsequently attract a broad range of "target-groups" towards a "product" which does not yet exist, and which is constantly being reinvented, redesigned, and readapted as construction proceeds, until it is finally ready only on opening day. Secondly, promotion requires on-going marketing communications and a build-up into a crescendo of rhythm and intensity. Both constraints were amply in evidence during the organisation of the Lisbon World Exposition.
Marketing the Exposition along the main promotional avenues – i.e., through advertising, promotions, public relations, and so on – was at the forefront of the organisation’s activities since inception, in 1993, and the marketing effort persisted throughout the duration of the entire development and maturation of the EXPO project. Originally, its main goal was to raise awareness of the event and to subsequently present and divulge its mainstay theme – “The Oceans, an Asset for the Future"; subsequently, a new marketing phase began with the characterisation of the features of the Exposition, by reinforcing its character and the level of international participation together with a presentation of its main attractions (its pavilions and the various entertainment features and events); lastly, marketing launched a direct appeal to "consumption" by demonstrating the almost inevitability of a visit to the EXPO.
The various components of the marketing campaign followed that same common approach in their communications strategies, and the great success and notoriety of the advertising campaigns which were launched already in 1994 with the "Bebés" creative campaign, which obtained various awards both domestically and internationally, deserves highlight. And directly underlying the entire marketing strategy was an on-going concern to achieve effectiveness – a concern that was always at the forefront of all planned actions, and always a function of the selected target-groups to be reached.
The strategy addressed various segments of the domestic population and translated into significant direct investment into the scientific community, the school-going youth, and the Portuguese residing abroad – which were segments that were selected as being important targets for the messages which the Exposition wanted to convey.
Beyond Portugal’s borders, a number pf priority markets was selected – namely Spain, first and foremost, plus a second grouping of five other European markets where a number of wide-ranging promotional campaigns was aimed at the public at large, together with incentives for direct marketing by tourism operators, all of which added a major contribution for making it a truly international event in terms of foreign visitors.
Taking into account the second constraint mentioned above, the efforts of the communications strategy for the Lisbon World Exposition were also followed when approaching the foreign markets, with the awareness campaigns starting in Spain already during 1995, and in the remaining foreign markets during the following year.
In a market which has an underdeveloped tradition of patronage, and thanks to the efforts and the initiative of Parque EXPO '98, S.A., the Lisbon World Exposition represented a truly pioneering effort for Portugal’s business community, highlighting the advantages that can be derived when a significant number companies associate to tackle a single mega event that offers them all the guarantee of huge impact, both domestically and abroad.
Based on a grid that offered sponsors various types of status for their association and involvement with Parque EXPO '98 S.A and the Lisbon World Exposition, namely statuses as "Associate Sponsor", "Official Sponsor", "Official Supplier", "Official Brand", "Associate Company", and "Contributing Company", it was possible to secure very high levels of support among domestic businesses. The value of the sponsorship agreements negotiated with trading brands brought in funding in excess of 50 million Euros.
Throughout the 132 days of the EXPO '98 event, the associated brands and sponsoring companies had the opportunity to obtain a vary fair return for their own marketing investments within the grounds of the Exposition, either by benefiting from a guarantee of high visibility, or through exclusive selling rights which they could, in turn, negotiate, in some instances, or even by running own awareness campaigns aimed at their specific client base.
The sponsorship-raising program began in 1995, allowing the companies which took advantage of their association with the event from an early date to actively participate in the promotional and awareness-raising actions that were conducted by Parque EXPO '98 S.A., both domestically and abroad, for the longest periods of time.
It is also interesting to mention that Parque EXPO managed to maximise the funding obtained from sponsorships by organising a number of events to run prior to the opening of the Exposition, which, either on that account, or because they were held outside the EXPO grounds, made it possible to negotiate specific agreements with domestic and foreign companies to the effect, as was the case, for instance, of the 100 Day Festival.
Ticket Sales
The pricing policy for the Lisbon World Exposition was designed to match the characteristics of the pavilions on show, the events being hosted, and the variety of entertainment features on offer, which policy Parque EXPO had devised in the years preceding 1998 with a view to adjust its supply to the "prices" to be charged.
Based on analysis of the pricing policy applied at various events that were previously held, and on the specific features on offer at the EXPO '98, the ticket pricing policy was actually announced to the public exactly one year prior to the opening of the Exposition, at which point in time tickets immediately went on sale.
The major features of the pricing policy for the World Exposition consisted on the provision of a "day ticket" giving access to all the thematic and international pavilions, and of a “night ticket” which was specifically geared to cover only the supply of nighttime events and entertainment, complemented by “single-day tickets”, “three-day passes", and “three-month passes”. The Exposition site featured a new ticket issuing device developed in cooperation with one of the "official brand" sponsors, which could magnetically record every entry into the site of the EXPO in a watch.
Sales were also programmed to cater for three different pricing seasons, bringing an obvious incentive to advance purchasing of tickets via the associated discount prices, plus new promotional ticket prices were introduced already after the opening of the Exposition, such as, for instance, the issuing of a “family ticket” and a “three-night ticket".
An agreement with a banking institution providing nationwide cover enabled the EXPO to benefit from a distribution network of over 600 sales points. In addition, preferential conditions were also put in place for the foreign travel distribution channel – namely Tour Operators and Travelling Agents.
Final ticket sales are deemed to be extremely satisfactory, and if such results can, naturally, be directly linked to the quality of the offerings available at the Lisbon World Exposition, it is also clear that sales were equally reinforced by the introduction of a number of innovative pricing policies. The following numbers are certainly a token of the excellence of the results obtained:
Total number of tickets issued: 6,742,667
Total ticket sales, including VAT – at 5%: 172,206 Euros
Percentage of gate sales – by value: 35% of total sales
Other important issues report to the significant editorial production that was undertaken around the event since 1993, both via in-house production and via third-party publications, all focusing on the International Exposition, the city of Lisbon, and the theme of the Exposition - "The Oceans - An Asset for the Future".
The production of a number of official Exposition publications – namely, an Official Exposition Guide (40,000 Portuguese copies printed, plus 15,000 copies each, in English, Spanish, and French) and Official Catalogues for various pavilions (being five publications, one for each thematic pavilion, of which over 15,000 copies each were printed) equally deserve highlight.
The Oceonophilia Program, focusing on the theme of the Exposition and aiming to raise the interest of the younger segments of the public, and thereby to educate a "generation" that might be capable of giving continuity to the message and goals of the Exposition, began as early as 1994 and involved about 200 schools and a total of 30,000 students.
The polarising foci of this program were 11 Sea Clubs which were launched in mainland Portugal and its Autonomous Regions. These clubs offered facilities for a variety of activities ranging from the practice of sailing to education, the engaging in environmental awareness campaigns and renovation of national patrimony, and the organising of artistic and entertainment events.
Visitor support
The support services provided to visitors included information and assistance services, three multi-service facilities, multimedia kiosks, provision of free transport services inside the EXPO, electric cars, and a cable car service, nursery rooms, medical care facilities, and a range of telecommunications, banking and ATM facilities, security services, lost and found services, fire-fighting, post office, luggage safekeeping, lost persons and group support services, an area to provide religious assistance, 13 kiosks, 4 self-service restaurants, 7 take-away restaurants, 7 traditional, foreign cuisine restaurants, and a number of bars around Sony Plaza; corporate merchandising shops, 8 international arts & crafts shops, 3 Portuguese crafts shops, 3 Portuguese food products shops, two bookshops, two crystal ware and crockery shops, a jewellery shop, a music shop, a wine shop, a medals shop, an art gallery, and a number of convenience stores – namely, 4 photography shops, 5 tobacconist and stationery shops, 2 travel agents, and 3 video shops.
Only some of the services were charged for – namely the cable car service, the ride to the top of the Vasco da Gama Tower, and entrance to the Virtual Reality Pavilion, the Children Playground, and the Adrenaline Zone facilities.
Media
The visibility of the EXPO '98 was ensured by provision of a media centre which was specifically put together for the effect during the term of the Exposition. The media impact was achieved through an internal TV broadcasting station, a radio broadcasting station, a daily newspaper, and an own news agency. A total of 6,312 foreign journalists from 88 countries applied for accreditation together with another 5,204 Portuguese journalists, i.e., making a total of 11,516 media representatives.
Tele-EXPO was on the air for 1,612 hours at EXPO, the radio service broadcast for 1,304 hours to Portugal and 1,015 hours to the rest of the world, the daily EXPO newspaper (including English and Spanish versions) printed 17.1 million copies, and the EXPO News Agency produced 4,105 news items.
Operations
The EXPO Operations unit ensured all the necessary services on site operated adequately as a whole, thereby making good on the guarantees given to exhibitors and providing visitors with a guarantee that the site was an absolutely safe, quality site.
The average number of personnel involved with "operations" totalled 3,638 staff operating in 4 shifts. 51.4% of total staff comprised female staff. Among female staff, 36.1% held honours or baccalaureate degrees and only 1.2% held less than Portugal’s Standard 9 schooling grade. As concerns male staff, the percentages of holders of the same level of qualification were, respectively, 21.4% and 3.8%.
As concerns age distribution, 49.9% of the female staff were between 21 and 25 years old, which age grouping accounted for represented 47.5% of the male staff. Among the various operational units, the major highlight goes to the Operations and Control Centre which had the crucial task of gathering and processing all operational information for decision-making and coordination of the entire Exposition.
The Human Resources Planning, Training, and Voluntary Services Unit set out the staff policies and guidelines in terms of selection of personnel for the event and organised all the required staff training.
The Public Services Unit ensured the operation of all accessibilities and transport systems. It is to be noted that, in addition to the fleet of secondary transport systems – which included 114 pool vehicles and a fleet of 147 electric vehicles – the site’s primary transport services included provision of 10 shuttle buses serving a daily average of 135,000 visitors commuting inside the site.
The Unit issued accreditations – namely 80,641 permanent accreditation cards and over 111,600 spot visitor cards as tickets or invitations, managed the Gates and assisted visitors, in general with information – 2 million requests for information were recorded (being exactly 1,982,589 requests) at the seven manned information kiosks inside the site, of which 39% represented queries by foreigners. A total of over 9 million pamphlets, brochures, maps, and a variety of guides were distributed.
The Unit assisted lost people – being 3,481 cases reported, of which 62. 5% involved children – managed 24,699 cases of lost objects and 11,884 cases of found objects, operated the luggage deposit service and the messaging and orders service – which was channelled via the Portuguese CTT mail services, having processed 285,062 inwards messages and 558,825 outwards messages – and ensured that preferential services were given to handicapped people and other social groupings. Finally, it provided medical care services – a total of 43,311 people were assisted on site, of which only 1.3% had to be subsequently transferred to a hospital.
The Technical Services Unit was responsible for ensuring the maintenance and cleaning of all the structures and public areas of the site, as well as the good operating condition of all telecommunications, sound, signal transmission and security control systems and equipment. It also acted as coordinator with respect to all interventions inside the EXPO site, including construction and contracting with concessionaries, and cleaning and maintenance of all gardened areas.
4,335 technical calls were recorded, of which 57% reported to buildings and facilities, which occurrences had no impact whatsoever on the normal operation of the Exposition. It is also of interest to note that about 6,000 tons of rubbish were collected, equating to about 45 tons of rubbish a day for collection.
The Commercial Unit was responsible for supervising the activities of all the shops and catering and restaurant services operating inside the site – with the exception of the Pavilion of Portugal – being a total of 105 units, and including both the monitoring of their performance to contract and of the provision of adequate public health standards. Their action ensured maintenance of adequate hygiene and sanitation conditions and environmental impact control at all times, while also guaranteed the good quality of about 4,000 tons of products consumed during the Exposition. In addition, the unit was also responsible for the complaints and claims office – a total of 5,361 complaints (being an average of 40 a day) were recorded.
The Pavilions Unit was responsible for the operation of the thematic pavilions, which hosted over 17 million visits, and assisted in the assembling of their contents and exhibits and the preparation of their operation for the entire duration of the exposition.
The duties of the Entertainment Unit comprised the negotiation of approximately 600 contracts with artists, producers, and agents involved with all the various shows and performances organised on the initiative of the EXPO organisation, as well as it managed the programming and the advertising thereof, on site and to the outside, and including management and operation of the entire sound, illumination, and video stage systems.
In turn, the Exhibitor Unit managed the daily maintenance of the pavilions and all areas occupied by official exhibitors, non-official exhibitors, and sponsors.
Their responsibilities under EXPO agreements were naturally marked by having to handle a tremendous amount of people linked to the large number of exhibitors.
There were 16,590 entries through the VIP gate, namely including visits by:
38 Heads of State
29 Chairmen of Parliamentary Commissions
35 Prime Ministers and Vice-Prime Ministers
22 Vice-Presidents of a Republic and Crown Princes
8 Chairmen and Secretary-Generals of international organisations.
Lastly, the Security Unit was charged with ensuring visitor safety and general security inside the site and surrounding areas, for which purpose 370 security points were permanently manned on a daily basis, in addition to a security device for monitoring the entire wet area of the riverfront. Surveillance hours clocked at over 1 million, two thirds of which took place over public areas and including 7,000 hours of maritime surveillance along the Tagus River. All incidents were promptly and satisfactorily managed and no incidents of major consequence were recorded.