75% of Rio 2016 tickets sold: organizers
Xinhua, February 3, 2016 Adjust font size:
About 75% of tickets available for this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro have been sold, organizers said on Tuesday.
Fans have snapped up 2.75 million tickets across 42 sports, Rio 2016 communications director Mario Andrada told a press conference.
South America's first Olympic Games will be held in the Brazilian coastal city from August 5 to 21.
Meanwhile 330,000 tickets have been sold for the Paralympic Games, to be staged from September 7 to 18.
Andrada said ticket demand for Paralympic events was slightly down on expectations.
"We are involved in several marketing activities to increase ticket sales," he said.
The most sought-after sports have been football, basketball, volleyball and athletics. Most Brazilian ticket buyers have come from the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Bahia and the Federal Districts.
Andrada said he did not expect people to cancel trips to Rio for the Games as a result of the Zika virus outbreak.
He added that the organizing committee would follow travel guidelines issued by the World Health Organization.
Zika, transmitted by infected Aedes species mosquitos, has been linked to cases of microcephaly, which causes underdeveloped brains in babies. Endit