Destinations that milk major sporting events are pricing tourists out of the market, warned managing director of Thomson Sport Europe Marc Bennett.
In a clear warning to organisers of the London Olympic Games, Bennett said some events have been so overpriced that organisers have been left with empty seats and hoteliers with rooms they couldn’t fill.
Speaking at a World Travel Market conference on sports tourism, Bennett said: "At some point there has to be some sense and sensibility about how these events are marketed."
Bennett said tour operators contracting rooms for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa were told by hoteliers "you can have 31 nights, or nothing". As a result, many hotels were left with some empty beds during the tournament.
Chief marketing officer of South Africa Tourism Roshene Singh admitted occupancy rates only hit 80% during the World Cup and she agreed regular tourists had stayed away, though she claimed visitor numbers in August, a month after the tournament, were 12.8% higher than in the previous year.
Interestingly, she said the less high-profile Lions Tour of South Africa had been more lucrative than the televised World Cup.
Executive director of the European Tour Operators Association Tom Jenkins warned hotel occupancy rates in cities that have hosted the Olympics have slumped at least 40% both before and after the Games.
"The Olympic Games is comparatively toxic in tourism terms," said Jenkins. "After Australia hosted the Olympics in 2000 it had fewer arrivals every year after until Athens hosted the Olympics in 2004."
Jenkins said the challenge for hoteliers was to correctly predict how many visitors the Games would attract. In Sydney, hoteliers expected 132,000 visitors a day, in reality there were just 18,300.
By Linsey McNeill
