According to Wesly in recent years anyone could in fact organize a trip themselves to a Rieu concert. "Not only individuals, but also the tourist offices of say Amsterdam, Arnhem or Groningen would be standing in line to buy tickets. Accordingly they would make arrangements by including the name and picture of Rieu." Rieu is a world artist. They may not use his name inappropriately to enrich themselves. "Maastricht: Rieu hires Wesly for the "Protection of His Image" in connection with the sale of arrangements.
Orchestra leader André Rieu has retained businessman Benoit Wesly to curb the 'abuse' of the use of image rights and arrangements. Up until now the VVV Maastricht managed hotel arrangements for theVrijthof concerts. Maastricht hotels could also do that themselves.
Rieu asked for help from his fellow townsman since Wesley has had a travel agency in the U.S. Xelat, a Wesly company, has now launched a new system. A concert ticket including a hotel stay, can from now on only be purchased by Kras, De Jong / Intra and Star travel. The Maastricht Tourist Office is also selling hotel packages, with a maximum of six per person.
Single tickets remain available only from approved vendors. If some one wants to stay overnight, they may make their own arrangements with a hotel.
André Rieu productions did not comment. The VVV Maastricht indicates that this has an advantage since everything is centrally controlled. "At the end of these concert series, it will be determined how well this plan turned out. ~Thanks to John for ©Translating and sending this.
Some fans wrote to me that they found this article a little bit confusing. In fact nothing changes. The Theater and the VVV Maastricht (tourist office)remain selling tickets and packages and the outdoor café's remain selling dinner arrangements. André just tries to catch scalpers who are buying the best tickets and sell them with their own trips to make money. Maybe that was the problem that the tickets were sold out so soon!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying, Ineke.
ReplyDeleteThis may help us get decent seats from the get-go!
Laurie
Andre is so compassionate to his fans and of course protecting the business side too. Thanks for explaining all of this which means that with all these scalpers Andre looses ticket sales. That adds up to quite a bit of money.
ReplyDeleteMartha