PyeongChang 2018 chief calls for ‘emergency measures’ to boost ticket sales

By Joo Kyung-don

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Feb. 1 (Yonhap) — Lee Hee-beom, the chief organizer for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, called for “emergency measures” to boost ticket sales for the quadrennial event on Thursday.

With only eight days left to the first Winter Olympics in South Korea, Lee said his team will try its best to increase ticket sales, especially for the more expensive ones.

The local organizers said 799,000 tickets, or 74.8 percent of the available 1.07 million tickets, have been sold as of Wednesday.

“Our ticket sales rate is stuck at 75 percent,” Lee told reporters after the opening ceremony for the PyeongChang Village. “We have many expensive tickets left, so we need some emergency measures to boost ticket sales.”

Some tickets for the Olympic events cost more than 1 million won (US$930). For instance, the most expensive seat for the opening ceremony is priced at 1.5 million won.

Lee said he reported to International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach that the ticket sales will go up as the Olympics gets under way.

“The 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the 2014 Sochi Olympics also had problems selling high-priced tickets,” he said. “I hope people can pay more attention to competitions like figure skating team events.”

Lee said that with the opening of the villages and competition venues, he thinks the PyeongChang Olympics have already begun.

“We all know that the competition venues have been completed, but we just need to work on temporary facilities at the venues,” he said. “These facilities will be completed no later than today.”

Lee Hee-beom, the chief organizer for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, speaks at the opening ceremony for the PyeongChang Village in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, on Feb. 1, 2018. (Yonhap)

kdon@yna.co.kr