Less than one month until the London Games kick off, and "luxury tourism packages to the U.K. have attracted interest from wealthy Chinese and corporate clients," according to Wang Zhuoqiong of the CHINA DAILY. Caissa Touristic Group AG VP Zhang Rui said that sales in the sector have reached more than 100M yuan ($15.9M). The company is the sole authorized Olympic Games ticket seller in China and has "tied the ticket sales to luxury tourism packages." Zhang said, "The closer to the Games we get, the more passionately people want to watch them." Zhang added, "We have received hundreds of inquiries and our sales are growing every day" (CHINA DAILY, 7/2). The YOMIURI SHIMBUN reported businesses are "ramping up their sales promotions of Olympic-related goods and services, including replica uniforms and packaged tours to see the Games." Package tours to attend the London Olympics have "proven popular, with applications far outnumbering available spots." Japan travely agency JTB Corp. offered packaged tours to London and solicited 15 participants for the tour, a six-day trip with four nights in a hotel, priced at 1.3M yen ($16,200). The agency "received 10 times more applications than available spots," and selected participants by lottery. So far, 30 similar tours have booked 80% of their seats. Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. said that "most of its Olympic tour packages also have sold out," including a six-day, three-night tour for 450,000 yen ($5,600), which includes tickets to table tennis and swimming events (YOMIURI SHIMBUN, 7/2).
