Rugby World Cup crosses the advantage line
Tournament organisers for Rugby World Cup 2011 have confirmed that key match ticket sales and revenue targets have been achieved for 2010 and that international visitors will number more than 85,000. 


“This is a very good position to be in with 267 days to go until kick-off,†said Martin Snedden, CEO of organising body, Rugby New Zealand 2011 (RNZ 2011)
“Since the ticket sales programmes were launched earlier this year a total of 864,000 tickets have now been sold, taking us to just short of two-thirds of our overall target of around 1.45 million sales across the 48 matches.â€â€¨â€¨
RNZ 2011has also released the key results of a survey of ticket purchasers carried out by independent research company Covec.
“The survey results are great news for New Zealand and for our tourism industry,†Sneddon said.
“This is reliable evidence that we can expect at least 55,000 international visitors from sales to date in our public ticket programme, in addition to the 30,000-plus visitors who we know will come through packages sold by the official travel agents operating worldwide. 


“It’s terrific that 44 percent of these FIT visitors will be coming to New Zealand for the first time.
“Furthermore, almost half of those surveyed have indicated an intention to arrive before the opening match on September 9 with the average length of FIT stay being 23 days. 


“While the bulk of visitors (36,500) expect at some stage to visit Auckland, at least 11,000 say they will also travel down the West Coast of the South Island and 18,000 to Otago and Southland.
“Regions up and down New Zealand will benefit,†Sneddon said.
Ian Jarrett
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