Fans to stay on cruise ships during World Cup

Two cruise ship companies will be supplying ships to act as hotels for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

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Up to 10,000 fans will stay afloat during the Rugby World Cup – even if their teams do not.

Five cruise liners – two in Wellington, two in Auckland and one in Lyttelton – will berth for the 2011 tournament, easing an accommodation crunch that is seen as one of the stumbling blocks to a successful event.

Two cruise ship companies, Adventure World and CruiseCo, were named yesterday as two of 20 official travel agents of the World Cup.

The set-up will be similar to an accommodation plan used for the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour – when 671 fans stayed on the Pacific Sun – but on a much larger scale.

Andrew Burton, chief executive of Rugby Travel and Hospitality Ltd, said the cruise operators could cater for up to 10,000 overseas rugby fans.

"Cruise ships will likely play a major part in the success of the tournament," he said.

The accredited agents will begin selling travel packages on January 1, the first time World Cup tickets will go on sale.

About 700,000 of the 1.7 million tickets will be sold to overseas fans.

Corporate and hospitality packages will go on sale a month later, followed by a global ticketing programme in April that will allow fans to buy groups of tickets for a particular venue or team.

Individual tickets will go on sale in August.

No prices have yet been confirmed for the travel packages – ticket prices will be announced later next month – but Mr Burton said they would cater for everyone, from the cruise-ship crowd to those in campervans.

Ticket prices will be similar to the last tournament in France. The cheapest tickets will probably cost about $30; quarterfinals ones will cost about $350, semifinals about $600 and tickets to the final about $800.

Shane Harmon, spokesman for Rugby New Zealand 2011, said one third of games would be priced "well above what New Zealanders are used to paying".

The World Cup has a revenue target of $280 million in ticket sales – almost nine times the revenue from the Lions tour.