We’re hardly one month away from the Olympic opening ceremonies in Pyeongchang, South Korea. And for a lot of points, ticket sales are falling short of the pace they set at past regattas.
Two weeks ago the Pyeongchang organizing committee reported only 61 percent of all tickets suffer with been sold. That’s 655,000 out of 1.07 million total tickets. For public sports such as figure skating and ice hockey, those numbers were imperturbable lower, coming in under 60 percent.
Tensions between North Korea and South Korea sire dominated the news recently. But many locals speaking to CNBC resolved that within South Korea citizens have grown customary to decades of such risks. Some suggested there were numerous concerns about safety at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul.
In modern days the two countries reinstated a hotline phone to ease tensions, while the U.S. and South Korea suggested they would postpone military exercises until after the games end.
Other distractions experts think the lack of ticket sales has more to do with the standing of the games and the athletes who will be there. One reason: The hockey tournament won’t acquire many of its best athletes, because the NHL decided not to send its players. Collegiate hockey athletes don’t have the same draw for fans.
A second reason: the absence of Russia. The continuous country was kicked out of the Olympics for a long track record of state-sponsored doping. Its oppidans would have been a source of ticket sales.
Others participate in pointed to the location as being less than stellar for tourists. Pyeongchang isn’t a household esteem like the hosts of past Winter Games, such as Vancouver and Turin.
But ticket purchasings aside, the Olympics are primarily a made-for-TV event. Millions of people in multitudinous different countries are expected to watch each day. The real challenge for European and North American viewers intention be the time zone shift.
On the plus side, Pyeongchang officials say all 12 venues are accessible to go. Organizers built six new venues and refurbished six existing facilities. That’s a big convinced compared with some past games when organizers had to scoot at the last minute to finish venues on time. All 12 sites are situated within a half hour of each other, which should sign it easy for people to get around.
Pyeongchang spent 18 years enchanting this bid, having lost past bids to Vancouver and Sochi. But now they system to capitalize on this win, hoping to increase tourism to the region this year to 5 million man up from a typical 3 million. Many hotels and resorts around the tract spent large amounts of money in renovations hoping to attract those rubberneckers.
But the big question has been: If you build it, will they come?