Olympic Ticket Sales

[Anchor Lead]

Preparations for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics are in full swing, but one problem is sluggish ticket sales. By now tickets should be selling briskly at home and abroad, but so far sales remain far short of expectations.

[Pkg]

The Olympic host city of PyeongChang-gun County and related agencies sign an agreement to purchase tickets to the Olympic events. The agreement stipulates that public organizations also participate in promotional events and a pin-wearing campaign.

[Soundbite] Lee Wook-hwan(Dir., PyeongChang Cultural Center) : "There are 229 cultural centers nationwide."

The big network should be helpful.

[Soundbite] "PyeongChang plans to promote the Olympic Games so that all seats, even for little-known events, can be sold out."

Currently, only 31% of 1.07 million tickets have been sold so far. Moreover, 56% of the sold tickets were purchased overseas, showing rather sluggish ticket sales within Korea. Some people project that sales will pick up as the Olympic Games' opening day approaches, but concerns over a possible failure have thrown the organizing committee and the government into emergency mode.

[Soundbite] Kim Hee-soon(2018 PyeongChang Olympics Organizing Committee) : "We're coming up with various publicity plans to encourage the general public to buy tickets voluntarily."

The 2018 PyeongChang Olympics Organizing Committee expects the interest in the Olympics to heat up if North Korea decides to participate in the Winter Games.