Olympic Tourism Doesn’t Always Help Yearly Tourism
Posted by Tousala | Posted in General Interest, Travel and Leisure: General | Posted on 19-02-2011
Tags: business, London, Olympics, Tourism
0
If you country makes a successful Olympic bid, the up-shoot of that is surely that you have a year of guaranteed tourism success, right? With the London Olympics very nearly only a year away, the British tourism minister is warning that the Olympics aren’t necessarily a recipe for short or long term gains.
There’s plenty of reasons for this, when you consider it. Sport isn’t everyone’s favourite thing in the world, for one. Thankfully, people who actively dislike sports and sports-people are a lonely majority. But equally, the vast majority of people have holiday plans and personal interests that far supersede watching sports. Plenty of these people will go on Dubai Holidays instead. No matter how well you country prepares for the Olympics, the resulting perception is going to be of a bustling city that doesn’t cater for your non-sport-related preferences. A host nation therefore simply seems ‘closed’ to all kinds of peripheral tourism. It’s simply safer to look elsewhere. The objective therefore is to make sure that the world recognises that the nation’s other tourist attractions aren’t just going to be open, they’re going to be as ready during the Olympic week as in any other.
This isn’t just wild speculation, either. China’s 2008 Olympics were widely praised, yet they were under-attended by legitimate audiences. In 2008 as a whole, there were 2 percent fewer arrivals in China than the previous year, despite the supposed draw of the Olympics. After hosting the 2004 games, Greece saw a shocking 12 percent drop in arrivals.
Strictly speaking, these countries won’t be direct parallel to the London olympics. Britain is hardly bathing under a Tropical Sky but it arguably has more attractions and a better tourist infrastructure than the Chinese and Greeks do. Furthermore, the Olympics may be the primary event, but the British will be able to gain tourist interest in what is also Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee year. But the danger is there that the UK will neglect its peripheral attractions next year, letting people disappear on Holidays to Barbados. The role models for Olympic success should be Barcelona and Sydney, who saw an increase in repeat visitation and suistained growth in the year. The hope is that London’s focus will soon shift to preparing itself for foreign visits in the Olympic weeks, so that people come back to experience the nation, rather than its sport.

