Survey shows more than half of S. Koreans believe PyeongChang Olympics will be successful

All News 11:42 April 14, 2017

SEOUL, April 14 (Yonhap) -- More than half of South Koreans believe the first Winter Olympics in the country will be successful, a nationwide survey showed Friday.

According to the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's survey of 1,000 people, 55.1 percent said the PyeongChang Winter Olympics would be a success, while 14.2 percent answered they were pessimistic about the quadrennial event. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent level of confidence.

The 2018 Winter Olympic Games are scheduled for Feb. 9-25 in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul in Gangwon Province, and adjacent sub-host cities Gangneung and Jeongseon.

The poll showed that 62.9 percent said public interest is the most important factor for the success, followed by infrastructure with 17.9 percent, visitor convenience with 8.9 percent and capability of the working staff with 5.8 percent.

However, the poll also showed only 35.6 percent were interested in the PyeongChang Olympics. In addition, only 14.9 percent answered that they were aware of the two PyeongChang Olympic mascots: Soohorang, a white tiger, and Bandabi, an Asiatic black bear.

Among the respondents, 9.2 percent said they would visit the venues to see the games, while 84.8 percent said they would rather watch them on television.

Among individual events at the Olympics that they would like to purchase tickets for, figure skating was the most popular, with 41.6 percent saying they were interested in the sport. It was followed by the opening ceremony with 25.9 percent, ski jumping with 24.5 percent and short track speed skating with 21.1 percent.

The survey showed 68.2 percent knew about the Winter Paralympics, but only 24.9 percent had interest in the multi-sport events for athletes with disabilities.

"The public interest for the PyeongChang Games wasn't high ahead of South Korea's presidential election," an official at the ministry said. "But we expect the public interest to go up when new administration is inaugurated and as the Olympics get closer."