Hopes of World Cup tourism bonanza kicked into touch

Thursday, 09 Oct, 2003 0

With the Rugby World Cup due to kick off in Australia tomorrow, organisers are still hoping it will trigger a tourism boom, despite early indications that high-priced travel packages have put people off.

The number of tourists flying to Oz for the six-week sporting extravaganza is lower than expected, and tickets are still available for virtually all of the matches, including tomorrow’s opening game between the host country and Argentina in Sydney, according to Reuters.

Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill told the news agency that 40,000 international visitors were expected for the tournament, adding: “Tourism numbers from overseas are actually very good in the light of circumstances around the world this year, the SARS virus, a war in Iraq, terrorism on the front pages.”

He said there was also anecdotal evidence to suggest that thousands of people were travelling unofficially and had tickets waiting for them which had been bought by friends or relatives in Australia. “That’s what happened with the British Lions tour – there were 8,000 official travellers and about 10,000 unofficial travellers,” Reuters reported him as saying.

However travel agents and rugby fans have complained about the high cost of some World Cup tour packages.

Normally Australia welcomes about a million tourists in October and November, the period in which the World Cup takes place, but in a report in The Australian newspaper, Andrew Burnes, managing director of the Australian Outback Travel Group, forecast that figure could be down by as much as 200,000.

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