Almost one in 10 Expo 2020 visits take in Italy Pavilion

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 4 - Organizers have said that Expo 2020 Dubai has registered 8,958,132 visits as the World Fair hits the half-way mark.
    Almost one in 10 of the visits during the first three months, over 735,000, took in the Italy pavilion, confirming its status as one of the biggest attractions.
    "The Italy Pavilion has the longest queue. I haven't seen any other like it," a visitor named Michele said as he waiting to get in.
    "But everyone said it is one of the most beautiful so its worth waiting in this queue".
    Those comments were echoed by a group of Italians waiting to see the pavilion which, among other things, features a replica of Michelangelo's David.
    "We decided to spend the (Christmas/New Year) holidays in Dubai," they said.
    "We have devoted today to Expo.
    "We have already seen the Russia, Australia and Oman pavilions.
    "We left ourselves plenty to time to see the Italy one, which has the longest queue but it's our country, so we cannot fail to visit it".
    Between 1 October and 31 December, almost one third (30%) of all visitors to Expo came from outside the UAE, with the top international visitor countries including India, Germany, France, the UK, the USA, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
    Expo 2020's virtual visitation crossed the 50 million mark, driven by the fantastic offering of Live@Expo, which enables visitors to take a bespoke live virtual tour through the site, as well as headline acts which have seen millions of viewers tune in from around the globe. (ANSA).