VisitEngland hails record Rugby World Cup including hotel occupancy of 99%
VisitEngland is celebrating the most successful Rugby World Cup (RWC) to date, with hotel occupancy rates of up to 99%.
The national tourist board, which has helped to spearhead the RWC's marketing campaigning, has announced that 2.47 million tickets were sold for the event, accounting for 98% of available tickets. This beats France's former record figure of 2.25 million in 2007.
As well as near full hotel occupancies on match days, the tournament resulted in an estimated £1b direct cash injection and £2.5b total indirect spend in the UK economy. The event achieved a reach of 1 billion people on social media, 250 million views of official media content, and a record attendance at Wembley Stadium of 89,267.
VisitEngland chief executive James Berresford commented: "This Rugby World Cup will be remembered as the biggest rugby tournament to date. In addition to the matches, we have had 1.5 million people through 15 fanzones across the country, with huge support from the cities, making this a record-breaking tournament to be proud of."
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