Beijing apologises after Olympic ticket sales suspended
BEIJING (AFP) — Organisers of the Beijing Olympics apologised on Wednesday for suspending ticket sales for next year’s Games, after unexpectedly high demand caused the computer booking system to crash.
The second phase of sales began on Tuesday morning but, with over eight million hits on the booking website in the first hour, the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) had to stop sales.
“We sincerely apologise to the general public,” a BOCOG statement said, adding sales would resume on November 5.
BOCOG blamed the problem on the sheer number of people who had sought to buy tickets.
“Because of the overwhelming volume of page visits, the technical system was unable to perform the tasks well enough, and many applicants were unable to successfully submit their applications,” the statement said.
“The ticketing centre had underestimated the demand from the public, resulting in shortcomings in the preparations and causing inconvenience to ticket buyers.”
Aside from the eight million clicks on the website, the number of calls to the ticketing phone line exceeded 3.8 million in the first hour.
In the now suspended second phase of sales, roughly 1.8 million tickets are on offer only to people living in China on a first-come-first-serve basis.
The first round of sales that ended in June was decided by lottery and saw 1.6 million tickets snapped up.
China will eventually sell a total of seven million tickets over three phases, with about 75 percent going to residents of China and the rest to overseas buyers.
Overseas sales begin in April.
The ticketing suspension has proved an unexpected glitch for BOCOG, who have previously been praised repeatedly by the International Olympic Committee for their preparations.