[Rio Olympics official website]
Sales of tickets to 2016 Rio Olympics events dropped dramatically due to Zika virus outbreak in Brazil. Since World Health Organization (WHO) had alerted the world of Zika outbreak in earlier this year, people are avoiding trips to South American countries where the outbreak has taken place.
According to a report from Ticketbis, a global sports events ticketing company, ticket revenues for Olympic events were in increasing rate by an average of 8.85 percent each week from October 2015, until January 2016. But as international attention on Zika virus rose, the revenue dropped 56.4 percent and it continued its freefall until the middle of February.
Ticketbis official told the media that the public's reaction to the travel alerts were directly reflected in the ticketing of Olympic Games.
However Brazilian officials are optimistic about the Olympic Games as the country is investing in promoting tourism during the season of Olympic Games.
Zika virus is spread to people through mosquito bites. Common symptoms of the virus are fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes), which lasts from several days to a week. But WHO suspects that the Zika virus is causing infected pregnant women to give birth to babies with microcephaly- babies born with unusually small heads and brain damage in infants. In October 2015, doctors noticed a surge in babies with the condition in northern Brazil.
Many health organizations worldwide are focusing their attention on Zika virus since it has no known vaccine. Pharmaceutical experts estimate at least 10 to 15 years will be required to develop vaccines.
As bad it is, there is no known cure for the virus. The governments in Ecuador, El Salvador, Colombia and Jamaica are recommending that women delay their pregnancies to avoid any possible birth defects.
아주경제 박세진 기자 = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
