The Galician showground, sponsored by the M.S. of the Xacobean Plan of the Ministry of Innovation and Industry of Galicia, was one of the most visited out of the 140 pavilions of the Water International Expo
Managed by the Higher School for Hotel Management of Galicia, the restaurant served during the Expo’s 92 days over 17 tons of octopus, 15 of mussels, 26.000 portions of empanada and five tons of Galician bread
More than 950.000 people visited the Galician Pavilion in ExpoZaragoza and more than 45.000 set menus were served in its restaurant
Today is the last day of Saragossa’s International Expo, the event that has turned Saragossa in one of the most visited sites of the whole of Spain and abroad for the last three months, and that has also made Saragossa spearhead the debate on water usage and sustainable development. Through its Ministry of Industry and Innovation, Galicia participated in ExpoZaragoza with an original and innovative 350m2 pavilion, and with a restaurant managed by the School for Hotel Management of Galicia.
The pavilion, whose nucleus was a great water screen of 13×7 metres, showed 3,155 water samples from all the Galician municipalities. The screen was complemented by a chill-out atmosphere that sought to evocate different sensations and relax the audience, together with the melodies of the “aquophone” (a machine that produces music out of water drops) plus the five luminous panels with the main tourist sites of Galicia.
This new way of advertising Galicia’s tourist appeal has gained wide and positive acceptance. The Galician pavilion got close to a million visitors by exceeding yesterday, Saturday, the figure of 950,000 visitors. It was one of the most visited exhibiting sites out of the 140 pavilions that were set up for the Water Expo, hitting the top ten for several days.
Saturday, 12th of July, start date of the Galician Week in ExpoZaragoza, it was the most popular pavilion with 26,380 visitors, ahead of the Latin American pavilion (19,259 visitors) and the Tower of Water (18,458). The following Saturday, 19th, it was again the most visited spot of the Expo with 23,139 people, getting ahead of the Tower of Water (21,045). During the whole of the Galician Week (from the 12th to the 18th of July), the Weekend of Galician Hydrotherapy (19th and 20th of July), and the Children’s Week (from the 21st to the 27th of July) it always stayed in the top ten of the most visited pavilions. Saturday 6th of September it exceeded again the 21,000 visitors in one single day, with 21,553.
MORE THAN 17,000 KILOS OF OCTOPUS AND 15,000 OF MUSSELS
The Galician restaurant was the other key element for the success of the Galician delegation. Set up by the School for Hotel Management of Galicia (in Spanish, CSHG), which belongs to the Ministry of Industry and Innovation, it offered a wide range of Galician Protected Designation of Origin and quality products in its select menu. At the same time, it elaborated a simple menu, easy to prepare and that would enable a quick transition from the kitchen to the client. It was the most popular of all the Spanish Communities.
The CSHG used the working model of fast food restaurants, with the particularity that in this case, quality products were used. With this system, the CSHG served around 500 menus a day, thus exceeding the 45,000 menus during the three months of the Expo. In figures, an average of 400 servings of octopus and other 400 of mussels and bread, 200 of seafood cocktails and 150 of dry-cured smoked ham, were served among other dishes.
The overall consumption got over the 17,700 kilos of octopus, 15,150 kilos of mussels, 26,400 rations of empanada, 3,535 kilos of Padrón peppers, 1,500 kilos of cheese, more than 2,000 kilos of pressed smoked ham, over 5,000 of Galician bread of Cea, 1,800 kilos of marron glacé, and 526 kilos of St. James’ Cake.
