Chapter 1035: Ticket Price Going to the Moon
The Moon belongs to all of mankind, who represents all of mankind?
In 1967, the Outer s.p.a.ce Treaty was signed. In 1969, Neil Armstrong placed the Star-Spangled flag on the surface of the Moon.
The so-called United Nations resolution was just a piece of paper, just like the United Nations itself. The Moon belonging to all of mankind was also nonsense, it would belong to the people capable of landing there.
On the surface, Jiang Chen was open for investment of Moon resources to investors in other countries. But in reality, he just wanted to tie the international capitals with him to develop the Moon for him.
No matter how much money the investors invest in the Moon, it would be on the basis that they recognize the legitimacy of Lunar City. Any expansion would be within the boundary of Lunar City and not New New York or New Moscow.
Taking a thousand steps back, if someone dared to declare independence, Jiang Chen would shut down their water, electricity and air. The controllable nuclear fusion power generation technology was the threshold of interstellar colonization. After several decades when other countries make a breakthrough in power generation, the moon would already be covered in Celestial Trade factories.
…
After the flight from Lunar City and Celestial Trade was established, Celestial Trade opened the ticket sales channel on its official website and issued 500 tickets per day for a price of 100,000 XND.
A journey 400,000-kilometer in distance, the maximum flight speed was close to 10 kilometers per second. It would take half a day to arrive at the Moon’s...o...b..t. The 100,000 XND may be an unaffordable price for most people, but the world never lacked rich people.
For those wealthy people without a place to spend their money, no matter if the Moon was worth it to go, it was a prestigious opportunity for a visit. At least at some high-level gatherings in the future, they could bloat about their trip when they meet their business friends. “Hey, look at the Moon in the sky, I have been up there. It is probably the most beautiful place I have seen in my life. I highly recommend you to go take a look…”
With only one Seagull-cla.s.s transportation s.h.i.+p (TS Seagull), the transportation capacity from Celestial City to Lunar City was quite valuable. In addition to people, TS Seagull also transported goods from the Earth. The most important restraint was that Lunar City could only accept 10,000 tourists and it was not the right time to develop the ma.s.s public market.
In fact, Jiang Chen still underestimated the attraction of Moon tourism to the billionaires and millionaires. On the first day of ticket sales, the tickets for the seven flights within one week were sold out in almost one second. If it were not the for the fact the ticket only sold seven days in advance, most likely the entire month’s tickets would be wiped clean in a few seconds.
The boss of a real estate company had foreseen the frenzy, so he ordered his a.s.sistant with foresight and tasked more than one hundred employees to purchase a ticket for him. Just when he thought victory was within his grasp, the few milliseconds of defeat s.n.a.t.c.hed the ticket from the jaws of victory. He stared at the anxious a.s.sistant in front of him and slapped the table.
“Fools! You guys play with your phone all day long. Now you can’t even buy a ticket for me!”
The a.s.sistant sobbed. “Boss, you can’t blame us. This is not a flight or train ticket. There are only hundreds of tickets around the world. And I suspect, someone is definitely using a software!”
When the boss heard his, he was even more furious. “Other people can use software, why can’t you use it. I asked you to find people to buy the ticket for me, did you find a bunch of construction workers? I could have done this myself!”
“But, but we don’t have the software…”
“With so many programmers in the company, why didn’t you just get a few people to write one! I asked you to find people, but you need to use your brain!”
The secretary stopped speaking. He knew that the boss was angry and just wanted to vent his anger at someone. It was better to keep his head down rather than defend himself.
Just then, the company manager rushed in,
“Boss! The ticket is being sold on the black market.”
The boss heard the news and immediately asked, “How much is it?”
“For the ticket three days from now, one million…USD.”
The boss cursed in his mind when he heard this as it was the price of a house. But then when he thought about it and how he developed real estate himself, he changed his mindset and said in pain.
“Hurry and place an order, buy… buy ten for me!”
Originally, he only intended to buy three to take his wife and son to see. But when he thought how the fare may go up even higher, he would make his money back by selling it at a higher price.
As a result, with the thirsty market and the pump of a large group of people with other intentions, the ticket sold on the black market sold at more than ten times the price with the highest ticket priced at more than 10 million USD.
Another interesting phenomenon was that the tickets that had seats closest to the front of the s.h.i.+p were sold at a higher price. This was especially true for the earlier flights. An example would be seat 001 on the first flight. It was bought by a Middle-Eastern billionaire at a price of 15 million USD.
Although 1,012 people have already stepped onto the Moon, everyone wanted to be the 1,013th. Even if history wouldn’t remember the name of the 1,013th person who landed on the Moon, it would still be worth the fame. Jiang Chen admitted that he had underestimated wealthy people’s desire for exclusivity. The pumped up ticket price had seriously affected the normal operation of Seagull flight.
As a result, while all previous sales didn’t change. From the second day on, the sales of the tickets began to be linked to the buyer’s identification information. The ticket holder must hold the same visa and pa.s.sport as the ticket purchaser to board the s.h.i.+p. The measure immediately crushed the scalpers who got a taste of the sweet profit.
At the ground command center, looking at the green spot on the radar that marked the Seagull, Kelvin expressed his opinion.
“I think we sold our tickets too cheap. The black market is selling them at 10 million USD. We can totally price a ticket at 200,000 XND. At this price, we can at least make 50 million per flight.”
The Seagull used a nuclear fusion generator for its power, and the total value of the helium 3 battery and the bis.m.u.th metal consumed by the flight was less than one million XND. Even adding the s.h.i.+p’s maintenance costs and labor costs, the cost of a trip would only be two million XND.
With the current fare, the flight would make so much money!
The Lunar Colony that burned money for a whole year finally achieved breakeven through electricity sales and rare earth mining. It finally achieved profitability through tourism! Two days before the first flight, the excited Kelvin was in tears. Now he was complaining that the fare was set too low.
A quite fast change in att.i.tude.
“The fare will come down sooner or later. The tourists’ enthusiasm can’t just be supported by the rich. What’s more, we have a golden mountain behind us, would you still care about the coins in the workers’ pockets?” Jiang Chen teased him.
“Isn’t there a proverb? Mosquito meat is still meat.” Kelvin shook his head.
“There is another proverb, the one that can be successful doesn’t care about the small profits.”
Jiang Chen patted Kelvin’s shoulder and left the confused Kelvin alone.
Standing beside the route map for a long time, Kelvin’s eyebrows locked together, thinking about the words Jiang Chen said.
After a long time, he finally squeezed out a sentence with a serious expression on his face.
“…How come I remember that the proverb as, the one that can be successful doesn’t care about the details?”