New Zealand's World Cup minister said the final phase of ticket sales that began on Monday is critical to the tournament's success.

Two months out from the opening match between New Zealand and Tonga, about 25 percent or 450,000 of more than 1.3 million tickets need to be sold if organizers are to meet revenue targets.

World Cup minister Murray McCully said New Zealanders had been relatively slow to purchase tickets.

"New Zealanders haven't felt the need to purchase some of the pool match tickets too early in the piece," he told National Radio.

"They've been aware that tickets would be available until close to the matches, and I think this is the start of the business end of the program now."

Tickets will go on sale this week to individual pool matches, then to quarterfinals and semifinals. The sales push includes tickets to eight matches relocated because of the February 22 Christchurch earthquake which has prevented World Cup games from being played in New Zealand's second largest city.

The final push to sell tickets Monday coincided with the launch of a World Cup roadshow to take the tournament trophy, the William Webb Ellis Cup, on a tour New Zealand across the next four weeks.

Martin Snedden, chief executive of Rugby New Zealand 2011, likened the roadshow to the Olympic torch relay and says it is crucial in raising public interest in the tournament.

"I think the roadshow is critical. It's a bit like the Olympic torch, that's the analogy I'm thinking of," Snedden said. "It's really about just continuing to raise that awareness, continuing to raise the excitement levels, getting people to understand that it's about rugby but it's also about New Zealand.

"I expect we would have a really good week [with ticket sales] this week. We start with pool tickets on Monday morning and from tomorrow people can also get tickets to the semifinals and quarterfinals."

SAPA-AP