Most Kiwis happy to watch World Cup games on TV

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Only one in 10 New Zealanders plan to attend more than one Rugby World Cup game, a new poll shows.

The latest Fly Buys/Colmar Brunton Mood of the New Zealand Traveller Survey, released by the Tourism Industry Association, found that 70 per cent of Kiwis plan to watch games on television and 15 per cent plan to go to stadiums.

Fly Buys chief executive Lance Walker said the poll showed New Zealanders did not want to miss the historic event.

"New Zealanders are embracing the chance to experience the World Cup in our own country," Mr Walker said.

The survey, which has a margin of error of just over 3 per cent, suggests there is demand for more tickets than the number available.

Five per cent plan to attend one game, 5 per cent two games, 2 per cent three games, 1 per cent four and 2 per cent five or more, the survey shows.

These figures add up to at least 1.4 million tickets being sought by the "stadium of four million".

As well, about 85,000 international visitors are expected to attend an average of 3.5 games each, totalling almost 300,000 tickets.

There are only 1.6 million tickets on sale, of which 1 million have so far been sold.

The research also found that only one in 10 people had heard of the Real NZ festival a nationwide series of events to run alongside the World Cup.

Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar said September and October would be a good time for Kiwis to travel around the country while the festival was running.

Half of the survey respondents planning to attend a World Cup game said they would travel to do so.

Two-thirds of the travellers - or 5 per cent overall - are planning overnight trips.

The survey showed 71 per cent of New Zealanders overall would watch the World Cup either on television or live - suggesting about 1.3 million people are uninterested.

The level of interest measured in the survey sits below official statistics released by tournament organisers, who say 97 per cent of New Zealanders aged 5 or above watched 15 minutes or more of the Rugby World Cup in 2007.

The Fly Buys survey was conducted online between June 15 and 22 from a random sample of 1016 people.