Pyeongchang 2018 admitted that more than 25 percent of people with tickets for the Winter Paralympic Games have failed to turn up for events.
The number of tickets sold for sports competition held here up until yesterday was 184,347.
Only 133,280 people actually attended the sessions, however, Pyeongchang 2018 revealed.
The difference between the two figures, 51,067, accounts for 27.7 percent of the tickets sold.
Pyeongchang 2018 spokesman Sung Baik-you described the number of no-shows as “disappointing.”
The release of the figures comes only two days after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that ticket sales for Pyeongchang 2018 had broken the record for the most ever sold for a Winter Paralympic Games.
Sales have surpassed the 316,200 sold for Sochi 2014 and they now stand at 331,205.
The Opening Ceremony on Friday (March 9) was attended by 21,000 people with 72.5 percent of tickets sold.
A total of 105,966 people purchased tickets for the first three days of competition with a turnout rate of 75 percent, the IPC claim.
The selling of tickets had been one of the main concerns for the IPC in the build-up to Pyeongchang 2018, with sales of just 0.2 percent recorded in early October.
It was also the case for the International Olympic Committee ahead of the Winter Olympics, which took place in Pyeongchang from February 9 to 25.
A lot of empty seats have been seen during wheelchair curling action with Sung putting this down to the sport being so “time-consuming.”
“Of course it would help if we sold more for curling,” Sung said earlier this week.
The Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Paralympics are due to conclude on Sunday (March 18).
By Daniel Etchells
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.