Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) – Two weeks before the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, there are still plenty of tickets available, a spokesperson for the Games said on Friday.
However, organisers have only sold 72 per cent of tickets available for the athletics event, 4.4 million out of a total of 6.1 million up for sale.
They launched a new bid on Thursday to sell another 100,000 tickets for a range of events at the premier international athletics tournament which runs Aug. 5 to Aug. 21.
Income from ticket sales so far totals 978 million reales (300 million dollars), 93 per cent of what the Rio 2016 organising committee hoped to net.
Opinion polls show Brazilians’ interest in the Games has taken a nosedive recently.
According to polling group Datafolha, over half of Brazilians have no interest in the Olympics.
The poll found half of Brazilians were opposed entirely to the Games, which will cost more than 11.8 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, about 60 per cent of the cost will be financed by the private sector.
Report says the Brazilian tourism office Embratur expects between 300,000 and 500,000 foreign visitors in Rio de Janeiro for the first Olympics in South America. (dpa/NAN)