Olympic Tourism

From Reuters:-


"I personally think that there will be less displacement than many people feel because London is such a huge cultural city, and there are going to be huge numbers of reasons for people to visit," he said citing exhibitions planned for its leading art galleries.


Hunt is lying over this. The evidence is very clear that there is a displacement effect in Olympic years.


Here's what the European Tour Operators Association report says:-

One feature of sports events, of any large event, is that it attracts people who would not
normally come to a city. During the Olympic period, the entire bed-stock of a destination is
devoted to the travelling officials, the press and spectators. These visitors are unlike ‘regular’ tourists, having different spending and behaviour patterns. They are not interested in “tourism” – they are interested in sport. So their behaviour is akin to business visitors attending a convention. They tend not to spend money on leisure and entertainment, and when not in stadia they watch events on TV rather then engaging in other activities. Theme park owners in Los Angeles saw a decline in revenue during 1984. In Barcelona the Costa Brava resorts had a drop in demand and at the Sydney games the normal attractions experienced a downturn in business.

(in fact, the whole report is worth a read as it utterly crushes the myths about long-term tourism, and seems to suggest that spending money on movie makers has a far better return).

On top of that, there's Andrew Lloyd-Webber saying exactly the same thing:-

The composer said that tourist bookings for next July and August were already at just 10 per cent their normal level and predicted that the theatre was in for “a bloodbath of a summer”.
He said he already knew of three major musicals that were not going to play during the Olympics and admitted that he would have to close some of his own shows or theatres too.

Everyone knows it's going to be a security and travel nightmare. Rich Japanese tourists will go to Paris or New York instead. And the effect will be felt further away. People won't come to the UK to see the rest of it, like Stratford-upon-Avon, Windsor and Bath. The prime destination for foreign tourists is London, with those other places gaining from tourists taking excursions. They won't come just to see Bath.