All That Glitters Isn’t Always Olympic Gold

One of the first things that I learned in researching tourism strategies in conjunction with the Sydney 2000 Olympics is that the world’s biggest sporting event is not necessarily a boon for all tourism operators or nearby destinations. In fact, it can be an extremely quiet period for them.

Firstly, the “Olympic family” fills many hotels before and during the Games, thus dislocating the normal flow of visitors to the host city, sometimes for months in advance. This includes both leisure and business travelers who will find rooms hard to come by. In turn this can mean that local attractions, restaurants and nearby destinations experience a downturn in visitation. Then during the Games, most of the accommodation is taken by people involved with the event as officials, athlete families, sponsors, media and event attendees. Again, their attention is on the Olympic events, possibly from early morning to late at night. And residents may be inclined to watch the event on television or in public venues rather than visit domestic destinations and local attractions.

In the meantime, many tour operators and domestic tourism destinations find that there’s no gold in it for them. The Daily Telegraph reports that a survey by the European Tour Operators Association of 38 different travel companies - responsible for bringing a total of two million overseas tourists to London each year - revealed that bookings for travel during the 2012 Olympics were down 95 per cent year-on-year, while bookings for travel during the rest of the 2012 have fallen by a fifth. The Olympics do however provide an outstanding opportunity for countries and host cities to take advantage of the unprecedented media coverage to add new dimensions to its brand identity. Something that Visit Britain is working hard to achieve.

Comments

[Paul Makam]

Your argument actually cemented my contention and observation regarding the the tourist flow to Stratford Olympic City in London. The benefit of the Olympic has little impact on the local community and businesses.

[Bill Baker]

The best approach with the Olympics is to take a view in the form of "how can we best leverage this opportunity for the future?" The Olympics really are not relevant to many areas, but for many it may present all kinds of opportunities. These may include gaining increased exposure through the non-sporting focus of the media and presenting investment opportunities to executives etc from around the world attending the event.