World Expo ticket sales look 'rosy'
- Source: Global Times
- [07:33 July 02 2009]
- Comments
By Guo Qiang
Organizers of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, another massive event to follow the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, began selling tickets to individual visitors at home and abroad yesterday, 304 days before the opening of the largest expo in history.
Buyers are entitled to purchase personal tickets from designated agents, including China Mobile, China Telecom, China Post and Bank of Communications, at 2,796 outlets nationwide, organizers said. Tickets can also be bought by logging on to ticket-selling websites established by designated agents or by telephone.
Organizers estimate that about 70 million people are expected to visit Shanghai during the 184-day event, which will open May 1.
“The overall situation of the ticket sales should be rosy, as there had already been two million tickets sold for group visitors by June,” Yu Zhenyu, the administrative director of the press office for the expo, told the Global Times. The sales of group tickets started March 27.
Erik Petersen, an expert at the World Tourism Organization, told the Global Times, “I visited several other expos in the past, and I think the Shanghai Expo will be interesting. If I'm in China at that time, I would like to enjoy it.”
Yu has every reason to be optimistic about ticket sales, pointing out that one Australian citizen once bought as many as 100 tickets for his friends.
Residents in Shanghai flocked to designated agents to buy tickets, Shanghai-based Dragon TV reported yesterday. A senior citizen who declined to be named told the channel, “I am looking forward to buying several tickets. As a Shanghai local, if I fail to visit the expo, I would regret it for the rest of my life.”
Li Kaichun, 72, bought the first ticket at a post office in Hongkou district, after waiting for more than four hours.
“The expo is such a massive event, and I'm really looking forward to it,” said Li, who had arrived at the post office at 3 am.
By 5:30 pm, more than 40,000 tickets had been sold by the four designated agents, Yu noted, reminding that no chaotic scenes were seen when Olympic Games tickets went on sale last year.
“Our ticket supply is sufficient, so there is no need for people to rush for the tickets,” Yu said.
It will take three to 10 days for any buyer to get his or her booked tickets online, according to Shanghai Youth Daily.
Tickets are also available at local authorized outlets for buyers from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, Canada and the Oceania region.
Both standard-day tickets and peak-day tickets are available. A standard-day ticket costs 140 yuan ($20) while a peak-day ticket is 180 yuan ($25) during the second phase of sales, which lasts until December 31. Both prices are 20 yuan less than the prices due to be charged during the expo.
Peak days include the May Day Holiday (May 1 to 3), the National Holiday (October 1 to 7), and the last week before the closing ceremony (October 31), organizers said.
“The standard-day ticket is a little cheaper because we want to encourage the public to visit the expo on common days, which would help us relieve the management burden,” Yu said.
He downplayed the possibility that scalpers will cash in on expo tickets, saying there are tens of millions of tickets to be issued, nearly 10 times more than those of the Beijing Olympics last year.
To ensure the operational safety of the expo and participants' visits, the number of peak-day tickets will be limited, said Chen Xianjin, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination.
Ticket buyers need not show their ID cards when buying tickets, and each person is allowed to buy an unlimited number of tickets, Chen said. But tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies of the expo are unavailable.
“Because the opening and closing ceremonies ticket sales have not been unveiled, we will have to formulate additional policies regarding those tickets and make them public at an appropriate time,” he said.
So far, 191 countries and 48 international organizations have confirmed their attendance of the event, organizers said, adding that the world's largest economy, the US, has yet to decide whether to attend.
The total budget for preparing the expo may reach 300 billion to 400 billion yuan ($36 billion to $48 billion), according to Zhou Hanmin, deputy director of the bureau, who commented on the costs in a recent interview.
In an effort to combat the possible proliferation of counterfeit tickets, organizers of the event vowed to crack down on sales of fake tickets to maintain market order and safeguard public interest.
The Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination will cooperate with the local public security bureau and the administration for industry and commerce and other departments to tackle counterfeit tickets and safeguard the interests of ticket buyers, organizers said.
An Baijie and Liang Chen contributed to this story