Even though promised earlier, New Zealand government announces no travel packages for Rugby World Cup
New Zealand government has announced that there will be no travel packages for the forthcoming Rugby World Cup.
The announcement came out as a shock for the South Island people who were promised to be given travel packages after the fatal earthquake on 22nd February. The central city of Island Christchurch was shaken by a tremor and all matches allocated
in the city were shifted to other venues.
Rugby World Cup is kicking off later this year in September, in New Zealand. There was a huge setback for the world cup organising body as one of their major venues, Christchurch, was declared unfit to host any match of the largest rugby event of this year.
The AMI stadium in Christchurch sustained huge damage in the natural disaster. The venue was scheduled to host seven matches of the RWC, including two quarter finals.
Initially New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup Minister, Murray McCully, pointed out that the government was pondering upon providing travel benefits to the people of Christchurch.
The suggestion was made to payback the people who had bought the tickets for the RWC before the tremor but after the disaster, the matches were transferred to other venues of the country.
However, Murray McCully revealed that the issue was no more on the government’s agenda. He argued that the government has looked in to the matter very keenly and discussed it with Air New Zealand but decided against it.
He asserted that the decision has been taken after many people had made the arrangements individually.
He added, “Where fans haven't done so yet the commercial market still has good value fares and is able to meet the likely demand out of Christchurch. We do not plan to take any further steps at this stage”.
As many as 3000 people had bought the tickets for the Christchurch’s quarter final fixture. The ticket holders were refunded by the authorities and were promised to be taken to Auckland if they were interested to watch the action live.
The nomads of Island and Christchurch will face huge problems regarding travel and hotel arrangements after the decision.
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