Coronavirus
17,000 Indians book tickets for Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite coronavirus threat
More Indians are interested to visit Tokyo during the Olympics than last year’s Cricket World Cup in England.
At a time when the whole world is reverberating under the threat of coronavirus, putting question marks even on Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the demand for tickets has actually increased. In fact, more Indians are interested to visit Tokyo during the Olympics than last year’s Cricket World Cup in England, claims a report by Ahmedabad Mirror.
Raghav Gupta, the founder and CEO of Fanatic Sports, which is the official partner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), confirmed the news.
"That is right. The demand for Tokyo 2020 tickets are at an unprecedented high. It will surpass the demand for ICC World Cup," he said.
According to Gupta, his firm had arranged for around 15000 fans to go for the Cricket World Cup in 2019 but for Olympics, he has already done packages for more than 17000. And he further believes that once the doubts over Olympics being held are cleared, there will be many more requests.
Threat of coronavirus is looming large over Tokyo 2020 Olympics (Image: Reuters)
Indeed, there have been several conflicting reports that the Games could be postponed or worse, be cancelled. Japan is one of the most widely affected country by coronavirus and the concerns are genuine. Every week tournaments are getting cancelled and the IOC has already said that a final call will be taken prior to the Games.
According to the report, though, fans are still interested and the demand for tickets for Neeraj Chopra, opening ceremony and men's 100m final are the highest. There is also a high demand for the women sports stars like PV Sindhu, Vinesh Phogat and Mary Kom.
"What has been of huge significance for us this time is the unprecedented surge in Olympic travel from Rio 2016. The opportunity to be part of India's 100th year of participation in the Games is huge. We had arranged for about 4500 fans to Rio and the interest has almost quadrupled now," Gupta, was quoted saying.
To find out how much it will cost for a Tokyo Olympics trip, read this four-part series here.
