Agencies cool towards Olympic tours
28/6/2004 17:40
With no ads or promotions, local travel agencies remain cool towards
the pending Athens Olympic tours, expecting few local sports fans to pay the
high cost of going to the upcoming Olympic Games.
Prices of the Olympic
routes will be much higher than regular business tours, as a result of soaring
hotel rates and increased airfares during the period plus the cost of
competition tickets, according to the Shanghai Morning Post.
An eight-day
tour to Turkey and Greece, including the tickets to a track-and-field event and
a diving competition, will cost 23,800 yuan (US$2,878), compared to 14,000 yuan
during the normal season.
Nine travel routes will be unveiled for the
upcoming games and the details will be disclosed in early July, with the average
price expected to hit 17,600 yuan. Target customers are sports professionals,
coaches and their families.
"According to our local partner in Athens, hotels
are becoming increasingly packed and rates have been soaring," said Wu Derong,
manager with China Youth Travel Service's outbound department.
Referring to
his experience four years ago with arrangements for tours to the Olympic Games
in Sydney, Australia, the manager said tour services in Greece will also not be
easy to organize this time.
Local agencies were disappointed by sales two
years ago with tours to the World Cup soccer games held jointly in Japan and
South Korea.
They organized package tours to South Korea, where China was
scheduled to play matches, but failed to sell more than 1,000 tickets.
The
prices of such soccer tours discouraged many soccer fans at nearly 10,000 yuan,
more than quadruple the normal price.
Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
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