Paris Paralympic ticket sales get Olympic boost, but still lagging

With less than a fortnight to go before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Paris, just over half of the tickets have been sold. Organisers are hoping a sales boost that followed the start of the Olympics will continue.

Five times more Paralympic ticket were sold after the Olympic games than before, Tony Estanguet, president of the committee organising the Paris Olympics and Paralympics told France Inter, echoing what other organisers have been saying in the past days, welcoming the boost from disappointing sales this spring.

At the start of this week about a million of the 2.5 million were still available, some selling for just 15 euros.

Six of the 22 sporting events to be held from 28 August to 8 September are already sold out, many of them to be held in some of the more iconic venues highlighted during the Olympics.

Wheelchair fencing and para taekwondo, both in the spectacular glass atrium of the Grand Palais, are sold out, according to Le Monde, as is blind football at the base of the Eiffel Tower and equestrian events at the Versailles palace.

For the rest of the tickets, organisers are pointing to the spike in sales between the Olympics and Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016 and London in 2012.

An advertising campaign titled "Game is not over” spotlights French paralympic athletes, to try to convince those returning from summer holidays, who may have regretted leaving Paris during the Olympics.