With just three days to go for the ‘golden games’ in London, Breaking Travel News catches up with Darren Williams, director of sales from Eurostar, to find out how the games have impacted passenger figures over the past few months and new developments planned for the high speed rail service as it looks to travel further afield into new markets.
Breaking Travel News: How have sales been during the Olympics?
Darren Williams: Demand for tickets was steady over the Games period, with particularly high sales during the second week of the Games as many fans travelled to London to share in the excitement of the athletic and swimming finals. Over both the Olympic and Paralympic Games periods we are expecting to carry over a million passengers to and from London to enjoy the action. Many of these people are from across the World and not just Europe, as Olympic fans in countries like the US, Australia and Brazil have used the Games as an opportunity to explore Europe and not just the UK on their visit. In addition to Olympic fans, we have carried over 1,000 athletes and officials from 15 countries – France, Belgium, Netherlands, USA, Canada, Tunisia, Japan, China, Vanuatu, New Zealand, Comoros, Brazil, Mauritius, Australia and Armenia. The London 2012 Games have been a fantastic showpiece for London. We hope that all the Olympic fans that have visited the city over this period will visit again, and that many millions more who have seen the Games on television, will do the same. BTN: Eurostar recently reported its first profit in 2011 and passenger numbers up 2% to 4.8 million in the first half of 2012 – Is the market turning a corner? To what do you attribute the increase in the number of passengers?