Tensions hurting Winter Games ticket sales

Sep 22, 2017 - 9:56 AM South Korea's political tensions with North Korea and China are depressing ticket sales for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The games organisers said on Friday that hundreds of thousands of tickets for the event in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang remain unsold.

France announced on Thursday that their Winter Olympics team will not travel to South Korea if security cannot be guaranteed, as tensions escalate over North Korea's nuclear programme.

Hurting ticket sales in China, Beijing has banned group tours to South Korea after Seoul's decision to deploy a US anti-missile system to counter North Korean threats.

"The political issues are having an impact on ticket sales," Eom Chan-wang, director general of marketing bureau at the Pyeongchang Organising Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, said.

"China, which represents the biggest market, barely bought tickets so far."

The Games are to be held in February but as of September 18, only 312,000 tickets were sold, about 29.2 per cent of targeted sales of 1.07 million tickets.

Some 191,000 tickets were sold overseas, 59.7 per cent of the target sales of 320,000 tickets.

Organisers aim to sell 750,000 tickets at home, but so far only 120,000 tickets were sold or 16 per cent of the target.

However, Games organisers expected sales to rise in China, once people are allowed to directly buy tickets online from October 16.

Eom expected South Koreans to rush to buy tickets as the Games near, as they did at previous international events in South Korea.

Source: AAP