winter olympics south korea builds it but will fans come
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Winter Olympics: South Korea builds it but will fans come

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Winter Olympics: South Korea builds it but will fans come

The Alpensia ski resort, seen from the ski jump tower
Pyeongchang - Arab Today

Across the road from the pentagonal arena which will host South Korea's Winter Olympics opening ceremony a year from Thursday, bundles of dead fish dangle from a wooden frame outside Lee Yong-Oon's shop.

Most venues for the 2018 Pyeongchang Games are virtually finished and the organisers are about to launch a domestic and international marketing blitz, touting Korean technology, culture and food as they seek to persuade sports fans from around the world to make the long journey to north-east Asia. 

Lee, though, has his doubts. Dried pollack -- dessicated during the biting chill of winter -- is a speciality of the area, but he thinks Westerners would find his signature product "a bit hard to eat".

He is not planning to increase production for next winter, he told AFP, despite his prime retail location and a chance to attract thousands of potential customers.

With a year to go, many South Koreans express pride that they are hosting the games, and workers are already installing the upper levels of the Olympic structure opposite Lee's premises.

The only sporting facility still awaiting completion is a new ski slope for the downhill events -- none of the existing resorts have high enough mountains to provide the vertical drop required according to regulations -- but even that is 85 percent finished.

A roomy show flat in the Olympic village, complete with bedspreads covered in sports symbols, has two sets of double glazing to protect against the cold.

Looking out from the top of the vertiginous K125 ski jump, tiny staff in dayglo green jackets far below prepare the landing area snow for a test event, the cross-country course runs through wooded hills nearby, and wind farm turbines line the horizon.

But marketing has so far been conspicuous by its absence. On the road from Seoul, the first mention of the Winter Olympics is a plain white sign on a hillside around 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Pyeongchang. 

It is a notable contrast to the next host China, where multicoloured billboards already line highways more than an hour from the venues, despite the fact that its Games are not until 2022.

A Gallup Korea survey released Tuesday said nearly half of South Koreans -- 49 percent -- were not interested in the Winter Olympics, with 19 per cent having "no interest at all". Only 48 percent were interested.

The question of promoting the Pyeongchang Olympics -- taking place an intercontinental flight away from the traditional markets of North America and Europe -- is increasingly important.

"It's a fundamental issue," IOC Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi told AFP.

"We must sell these Games, and the challenge today -- and we have spoken openly about this with the Pyeongchang organisers -- is to engage this effort both at the Korean level and internationally," he said.

Even South Korean media have expressed concerns. In a stinging editorial, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper lamented that there was "no excitement or buzz around the Games that are only about a year away" and warned of the risk of "international embarrassment".

- 'Games for Asians' -

The push will begin on Thursday, said Lee Hee-Beom, president and CEO of the Pyeongchang Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (POCOG), when tickets go on sale in South Korea. International availability depends on each country's national Olympics committee. 

Top category seats for the opening ceremony and men's ice hockey final cost 1,500,000 Korean won ($1,300) and 900,000 won ($800) respectively, but several disciplines ranging from biathlon to skeleton have tickets as cheap as 20,000 won.

"From February 9th we will have promotions and we will expedite promotional activities around the nation and all around the world," Lee told AFP, with advertisements on Seoul buses and international television networks. 

Pyeongchang will be the 23rd Winter Olympics, he pointed out, but the Games have only been held in 12 countries so far, all of them in Europe or North America aside from Japan, which has hosted them twice, at Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.

So far winter sports have been "games for the Europeans, games for the Americans", he said. But with China to follow South Korea as host country, it meant "winter sports become games for Asians".

Beijing has declared its intention to have 300 million winter sports fans by the time it hosts the event.

But at the Yongpyong resort where the slalom events will be held, tour guide Uno Wang -- who has been escorting groups from China for 15 years -- warned against relying too much on South Korea's giant neighbour.

"We usually introduce the Olympics to the people that we bring here but they don't show that much interest," he said. "It's generally like that in East Asia. China is a country that's not that into sports, especially winter sports."

And Chinese tourism to South Korea is under a cloud, with Beijing infuriated by the country's planned deployment of a US missile defence system, THAAD, in response to nuclear-armed North Korea's atomic tests and rocket launches.

Beijing has imposed measures seen as economic retaliation, and Wang says his visitor numbers have fallen by 30 to 50 percent as a result.

"If the South Korean government goes ahead with the THAAD deployment maybe the numbers will decrease even more -- 70 or 80 percent," he said. "It's a very serious problem."

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

winter olympics south korea builds it but will fans come winter olympics south korea builds it but will fans come

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

winter olympics south korea builds it but will fans come winter olympics south korea builds it but will fans come

 



GMT 18:15 2017 Sunday ,17 September

Inter Milan stay top, Roma on the move in Serie A

GMT 12:47 2015 Sunday ,18 October

UAE Committed to achieving global food security

GMT 08:19 2017 Thursday ,19 January

Nigeria announces deployment of troops to Gambia

GMT 12:57 2017 Wednesday ,27 September

Bahrain Bourse daily trading performance

GMT 15:58 2017 Tuesday ,28 March

Israeli Police Arrest 11 Al-Aqsa Guards

GMT 03:25 2017 Friday ,15 September

July24th-August23rd

GMT 07:26 2017 Thursday ,07 September

Fashion spotlight CENTRESTAGE opens in Hong Kong

GMT 21:27 2015 Monday ,06 July

Tunisia beach gunman had worked in tourism

GMT 10:25 2017 Saturday ,15 April

Sock avoids upset to reach Houston semis

GMT 08:33 2017 Saturday ,29 April

Turkish authorities block access to Wikipedia

GMT 16:33 2017 Tuesday ,05 September

MP calls for private sector participate

GMT 12:22 2015 Saturday ,26 September

New Era announces London flagship launch

GMT 11:42 2017 Saturday ,25 November

Sydney in multi-billion-dollar stadium splurge

GMT 11:59 2015 Sunday ,30 August

High protein foods boost cardiovascular health

GMT 08:52 2014 Friday ,26 September

New Zealand combines adventure sports
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday