Parliamentary News Release
065/2004
11 October 2004
HISTORIC OPENING OF HOLYROOD ATTRACTS GLOBAL INTEREST
International interest in the Opening of Holyrood ensured that Parliament's website yesterday attracted visitors from locations all across the world, with people logging on from Guadalajara to Glenrothes, Barcelona to Beijing, Dundee to Dar es Salaam, and Hanoi to Honolulu.
With interest from Aberdeen to Zagreb, the greatest number of hits came from the UK and the United States, with other visitors accessing the site from more than 80 other countries, ranging from Nepal, Qatar and Saint Lucia, to Brazil, China and India.
On the day of the Opening itself and the week running up to it, Parliament's website served more than 375,000 pages, with information about the Opening and latest pictures of the Holyrood building being most popular after the front page itself.
Presiding Officer George Reid said:
“The Opening of Holyrood gave us a chance to show off the range of Scotland’s best talent on the international stage, and the level of interest in Parliament’s work from around the world is a pleasing reflection of our internationalist outlook.
“The day itself lived up to my high expectations for it, and key to that for me was being able to bring people from across the country into the heart of their new Parliament building.”
Peter Lederer, Chairman of Visit Scotland, said:
“The eyes of the world were on us at the weekend and I have no doubt that the successful opening of Holyrood will bring even more visitors to the Capital.”
International public interest was matched by the range of countries which sent representatives to Holyrood on the day. Those who gathered for the day’s events included speakers of Parliaments from Ghana to the Slovak Republic, and consular representatives from over forty countries, ranging from Mongolia to Mexico.
The opening celebrations also attracted international media coverage in countries ranging from Bahrain and China to Australia and Canada.
Background
Records for Parliament's website showed that the greatest interest in the Opening yesterday came from the UK and the United States. The remaining visitors came from more than 80 countries, as follows (largest number first):
Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Republic of Korea, Sweden, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Japan, China, Poland, Denmark, New Zealand, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, Argentina, Hungary, Iran, Finland, Peru, Portugal, India, Mexico, Russian Federation, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Turkey, Nigeria, Philippines, Brazil, Slovenia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Malaysia, Iceland, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Croatia, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Slovakia, Pakistan, Benin, Liechtenstein, Bahrain, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Serbia and Montenegro, Malta, Colombia, Morocco, Romania, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, British Virgin Islands, Tanzania, Andorra, Saint Lucia, Lithuania, Macau, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Belarus, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Panama, Chile, Nepal and Bulgaria.
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