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With less the six months to go, Rugby World Cup 2019 is set to attract the largest number of foreign fans in the tournament’s history with more than 600,000 of the 1.8 million available tickets expected to be held by international fans making the journey to Japan to be part of this once in a lifetime Rugby World Cup.
Based on current ticket purchase data from the priority and general sales phases, as well as official travel and hospitality programs, England fans are expected to make up 23.9 percent of the foreign fan contingent, followed by Australia with 15.6 percent and Ireland with 7.9 percent. The sixth largest international group will be fans from the USA with 4.6 percent and The Netherlands rounds of the top ten with 2.5 percent, demonstrating the global appeal of rugby’s showcase event. The remaining 160 countries comprise a total of 19.7 percent with fans coming to Japan quite literally from the four corners of the globe, including as far away as Antarctica.
Japan Rugby World Cup 2019 Organizing Committee CEO Akira Shimazu said: “With less than six months to go before Asia’s first Rugby World Cup kicks off in Japan, it's encouraging to see such an incredible response from international fans. While we expected to see large numbers coming from the traditional rugby nations, I am thrilled that both the USA and the Netherlands are in the top 10 countries of international ticket purchases.
"From the very beginning, we set out to make Rugby World Cup 2019 a truly ground-breaking tournament, so to have such strong interest from fans in rugby’s frontier markets like the USA and the Netherlands, as well as countries like Germany, Spain and Brazil is absolutely wonderful. Asian nations are also well represented with more than 3% of international fans coming from countries neighboring Japan.”
While demand for tickets has been unprecedented across all sales phases to date, new ticket inventory will become available for the next round of first-come-first-served ticket sales set to being at 18:00 Japan Standard Time (JST) on Saturday May 18 and running until the end of July at www.rugbyworldcup.com/tickets. These tickets will be a mixture of seats released from ongoing venue planning and configuration and handbacks from the tournament's commercial program and unions, and tickets that have been registered for official resale by fans who can no longer attend matches.
Ticket sales from the priority and general sales phases, official travel and hospitality programs and commercial sponsors currently total around 1.29 million, or just over 70 percent of total ticket inventory. With a sizeable portion of the remaining inventory due to be released for general sale on May 18, there is still a chance to be part of Rugby World Cup in Japan. However, with demand for tickets likely to remain incredibly high and ticket availability expected to be tight across all tournament matches, fans are encouraged not to hesitate in purchasing tickets they find available during this next sales period.
World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont added: “The incredible demand for tickets demonstrates just why we believe that Rugby World Cup 2019 will be one of the great Rugby World Cups and a truly unique experience for fans. It will be a tournament that has fans and teams at heart, celebrates rugby and Japan and will further the reach and growth of the sport across Asia and around the world.”
In addition to the next sales phase, fans can also look to purchase tickets via the Rugby World Cup 2019 Official Resale Service. Due to open on 18:00 (JST) on Friday 31 May, the service will give fans a safe and secure platform from which to resell Rugby World Cup 2019 tickets at face value for matches they can no longer attend. Further details will be released ahead of the opening of the resale service at www.rugbyworldcup.com/tickets.
Another option for fans looking to secure match tickets is through the Rugby World Cup 2019 Official Supporter Tour and Hospitality programs. Ticket-inclusive travel packages provided through RWC 2019 official travel agents are proving extremely popular, with tickets for some of the most popular matches still available. The prestigious Webb Ellis Suite and private hospitality suites are already sold out, however some great matchday hospitality options are still available. Further details can be found via www.rugbyworldcup.com/supportertours and www.rugbyworldcup.com/hospitality.
With such exceptional demand for tickets, fans are being urged to buy exclusively from official channels to avoid being let down. For more details visit www.rugbyworldcup.com/buy-official.
There will be a further ticket sales opportunity in August for any remaining match tickets. Ticket quantities and available matches are expected to be limited so fans are encouraged not to delay in purchasing tickets they find available during any of the upcoming sales periods.
© Rugbyworldcup.com
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robert maes
At the very least i may hope the LOC2019 does not belief its own hype.
The tickets in The Netherlands will be bought either By the strong Japanese expat contingency or by English people. I don’ T think you will see more than 100 dutch showing up for the Rugby worldcup. The German sales where in anticipation for a possible german qualification, same there, but maybe 200 people will come. Brazil, again, most likely for Japanese people’s end use or Brazilian contingent in Japan. Pls stop creating these over expectations which will not Materialise. And about the 10’s of millions of fans in China and India... go play a Super rugby game there and see who shows up