Ticket Sales for Pyeongchang Olympics Soar as Opening Nears

The venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province is blanketed with snow on Sunday. /Yonhap

Ticket sales for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang have accelerated as the opening approaches, with more than half of the tickets now sold. The Olympics begin on Feb. 9 and run until Feb. 25.

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The organizing committee for the Olympics said Sunday that about 555,000 tickets, or 51.9 percent, including for the opening and closing ceremonies, have been sold as of Friday.

"Sales have increased since the torch relay kicked off and offline sales became available in early November", the committee said. "Sales remained at around 30 percent by October, but jumped in November, with almost 10,000 tickets sold a day".

The committee attributed the increase to the opening of the new route of the KTX high-speed train between Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province and Gangneung, which is close to the Olympic venue.

Tickets for popular disciplines such as figure skating and short-track skating events have already sold out, while those for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton have been slower, with combined sales reaching just 37 percent so far. The committee hopes tickets will be sold out by the opening ceremony on Feb. 9.

Tickets are available both online and offline through the committee's website or the municipal offices of Seoul and Gangneung, and major KTX stations.