Oviedo City Council has recently defended the veracity of the city’s congress figures, while raising doubts over those provided by Gijon.
The head of the department of tourism of the city council explained that the figures for congresses held in Oviedo in 2006 (312,546 delegates at 1,920 events) “have been obtained according to standards established by the Spanish Congress Office, and since these statistics are public domain they cannot be questioned. In addition, they show that with regard to the number of events and delegates Oviedo leads Gijon by 10 to 1.”
This he said in reply to his counterpart in Gijon, who claimed that Oviedo City Council had included the people who visited the auditorium to watch Fernando Alonso race in overall congress figures. In addition to pointing out that the auditorium’s cultural activities has not been included in congress statistics, he stated that a total of 141,000 people visiting the auditorium had gone there for other reasons, 96,870 to see the 121 concerts celebrated at the venue, 34,055 to see plays or dancing and 10,260 to watch the 18 Formula 1 races held last year.
