Ticket sales for the Taipei Universiade have been low because most people are waiting for the release of Taiwanese team schedules, Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee chief executive officer Su Li-chung (蘇麗瓊) said yesterday at a news conference in Taipei.
The Universiade is to take place from Aug. 19 to Aug. 30 and ticket sales began on June 13.
However, statistics released at a Taipei City Government meeting on Tuesday showed that as of Friday last week, about 84 percent of available tickets for the opening ceremony had been sold and only about 11 percent for the closing ceremony had been sold.
Photo: Shen Pei-yao, Taipei Times
Only about 11 percent (69,978) of all single tickets and 18 percent (1,767) of all package tickets had been sold, while about 40 percent (29,764) of all tickets sold were group purchases.
“I think many people are waiting because they only care about the Taiwanese teams’ schedules, which will be confirmed after all the teams have completed their applications by July 19,” Su said.
There will be many outstanding performances in all events and at the closing ceremony.
Regardless of whether Taiwanese teams are participating, it will be exciting to watch,” Su said. “People should take advantage of the early-bird discount on tickets.”
As 10 of the venues do not have food services, four welfare organizations — Children Are Us Foundation, Down Syndrome Foundation, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital and Mackay Memorial Hospital — are to provide snacks at those venues, the organizing committee said.
The committee said it hopes that by allowing the participation of the four organizations, it will bring more warmth to the Games and help promote the organizations, Su said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education’s Youth Development Administration (YDA) has invited local and foreign young people to help promote the Universiade and its Youth Travel Spots project.
The YDA is to give away 200 Universiade tickets.
People aged from 18 to 30 can form a two-person team with one Taiwanese and one foreigner and post online messages about the Universiade on Youth Travel Spots social media sites.
Participants must have at least 300 friends on their social media account, tag at least five of them in their entry and include two hashtags for the Universiade or the project.
The YDA is to randomly select 100 teams from those who qualify, with the winners receiving Universiade tickets, souvenirs and an opportunity to take part in a Youth Travel Spots event.
The YDA is also providing accommodation and transportation expenses for 10 pairs of “youth travel ambassadors” to visit five Youth Travel Spots over two days.
More information can be found on the YDA’s English-language Web page: www.gvm.com.tw/event/2017youthtravel/2017findmyway/English.
Additional reporting by CNA
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