Rugby World Cup France 2007 – Benhamou leads the charge and kicks a great industry goal

Patrick Benhamou the Sydney based Director of Maison de la France led the charge and kicked a fabulous goal that any French Rugby team would be proud of at Sydney’s Sofitel Wentworth last night at a glittering event to launch Rugby World Cup 2007 in France to the Australian sporting, travel and tourism industry.

The sumptuous dinner was prepared by world renowned French chef Alain Ducasse with classic French wines served.

[Left: Patrick Benhamou and The Hon Tim Fischer, Chairman of Tourism Australia discuss the finer points of the game!]

Last night’s event will also be followed by a series of agents’ seminars in Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 September – make sure you are there!

[Left: Lisa Wilkinson and Sandra Sully with Peter Fitzsimmons with eyes firmly closed in very deep concentration!]

Rugby World Cup, which will take place in 12 venues in France, Scotland and Wales over 45 days between 7 September and 20 October 2007 will be the third largest sporting event in the world and a great opportunity for the Australian travel industry to sell some great packages to see the Wallabys get right through  to the final!

600,000 seats are available in 12 venues and across all games that equates to 2.4 million tickets, which have been on sale since April 2006 with general public tickets going on sale on November 9 2006.

A range of City and Team Packs are also available with Pack tickets for Australia’s games ranging from €130 to €580 with a draw for seats in the final.

[Left: Fred Sparksman, Monica Nearney – Tourism Ireland, Maureen Van Metter – Insight Vacations and Anthony Gallagher – Vacation and Travel talk rugby!]

10,000 tickets have been sold to Australians to date and Australia is 4th in the list of top selling markets for tickets and 88% of all tickets sold globally to date sold through the internet.

In addition, a whole range of City Breaks packages and other holiday options to travel right across France, a country which can fit nicely inside New South Wales are available, providing a great opportunity to the travel industry in Australia to not only sell the tournament but also pre and post visits to France and other countries so close by in Europe.

[Left: Jean-Marc Devanne – France City Breaks and Claude Atcher – RWC 2007 Tournament Administrator welcome the Wallabys and allez au contact!]    

[Below: Greg Maloney – the Ramada Plaza Noumea and Pria Viswalingam of Fork Films go for the Wallabys!]

Further information on Packs and tickets available and other travel industry opportunities can be found on: –

www.rugbyworldcup.com

www.france2007.fr

Report by Le Mole!