Osaka Expo advance ticket sales miss target
About 9.7 million advance tickets for the World Exposition in the western Japanese city of Osaka were sold, the event's organizer said Monday, meaning that pre-event sales fell short of its target.
The total number of tickets sold prior to the Expo's start Sunday came to around 11.7 million, including the roughly 2 million tickets set aside for group visitors, according to the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition.
The figure is shy of 14 million tickets set as the target for advance sales.
Hiroyuki Ishige, secretary-general of the association, emphasized the importance of achieving the final goal of selling 23 million tickets for the Expo.
"I feel we have reached a pretty good figure," Ishige told a press conference at the Expo venue.
"If this trend continues, we will be able to reach the (final) target."
Meanwhile, the association said its estimate for the total number of Expo visitors, approximately 28.2 million, includes staff members and others related to the event in addition to general visitors.
Ishige said such people were counted in the total visitor tally for the previous Dubai Expo in the United Arab Emirates, saying, "We ensured consistency with the operations of past international expositions."
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Photo by Reuters
