Taipei, July 8 (CNA) Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said on Saturday that city officials would step up a campaign to promote the World University Games with a recent poll showing that less than one third of the city's residents are interested in buying tickets to the event next month.
It is difficult to attract people to sports arenas because they are used to watching sporting events on television, but officials will do their best to increase interest in the Universiade, to be held in Taipei from Aug. 19 through Aug. 30, Ko said
The Sports Administration under the Ministry of Education has allocated NT$100 million to provide discount tickets for students, he added.
In the month leading up to the official opening of the event, the Universiade torch will be carried around Taiwan and there will be an intensive ad campaign to heighten public awareness of the games, Ko said.
He made the comments to reporters after a poll conducted by Taipei City government's Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission indicated that up to 68 percent of Taipei residents do not plan to go and watch any of the Universiade events.
Even so, 44 percent of those polled did say they were confident Taipei City government would do a good job hosting the games, according to the survey.
The survey, conducted from May 23 to May 26, targeted Taipei City residents aged 18 or older. A total of 1,138 valid samples were collected and the margin of error was plus or minus 2.91 percentage points.
Universiade tickets went on sale on June 13 and as of June 30, only 11 percent of individual tickets and 18 percent of full-period package tickets had been sold, according to Taipei City Government.
