Skift grip
Prepare for a fusion of traditional French tourism and elite sports at the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. Much responsibility now falls to new hospitality provider, On Location.
Matthew Parson
Major sporting events will go hand in hand with Emily in Parisstyle tourism experiences next year, as an International Olympic Committee and United States event specialist On the spot team up to launch new e-commerce site sell tickets with hospitality packages.
The committee took what it said was an innovative approach for the next Olympics, to be held across France from July 26, 2024, opting for a single, centralized platform – the first time in the history of the Games, he says.
The On Locations e-commerce website went live on Tuesday and had a relatively smooth start with wait times of around one to two minutes to access.
Bundled up
So what exactly is being sold? Essentially, packages that bundle a ticket to a sporting event with access to an official entertainment venue such as Clubhouse 24, which is based at the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art center, or Salon 24, in central Paris.
Socket a sheet of the Airbnb book, On Location also offers selected themes such as food and wine, fashion and style, history and culture, and families. Packages may also include hotels and local transport.
Visitors can also pay for more expensive on-site hospitality in private or shared lounges at competition venues. Packages can be customized, while there is a separate platform for corporate entertainment. Flights are not sold.
About 90 percent of Olympic sports competitions are available with hospitality.
“At On Location, we sell much more than tickets, we provide experiences,” Chairman Paul Caine said in a statement. “For many years, hospitality was basically the same: tickets plus services. This is not our vision for Paris 2024. We want to offer emotions and tell stories to travel enthusiasts.
On Location is perhaps best known for arranging packages around the SuperBowl and New York Fashion Week. Sports and entertainment company Endeavor acquired On Location in 2020.
According to the French publication L’Equipe, On Location paid nearly $1.5 billion for the rightswhich also includes the sale of packages for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA. On Location did not respond to a request for comment.
Games for all
The committee said selling hospitality packages in this centralized way was a “revolutionary model” that would ensure “a safe and more accessible way for spectators to experience the Paris 2024 Olympic Games”.
However, there are selected sub-distributorsincluding corporate travel agency ATPI Travel and Events Canada.
Admission packages, with a ticket to the Olympics included, start under $100. The low cost reflects the organizer’s ambitions to promote accessibility for the historic sporting mega-event, which is concentrated in Paris but also includes Marseille, Lille and the overseas territory Tahiti, with mottoes like “Games for All” and “Games Wide Open” highlighting in marketing.
Other platforms, from Booking.com to Lastminute.com and Expedia, may of course sell Olympics packages, but these will not include competition tickets.
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