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‘Negative traveller perceptions’ could hurt London Olympics
Thursday, 19 Dec, 2008
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Widespread negative attitudes among travellers about London’s Olympics in 2012 have emerged.
The overall perception is that this are going to be a second class Games.
There are also key concerns about high costs and the threat of terrorism but London remains the right choice and the Games still have the potential to be a major visitor attraction.
The findings come from a survey by online travel community WAYN.com of 7,559 travellers, 22% who have previously attended a city while hosting the Olympics.
The ever present threat of terrorism was considered to be the main visitor deterrent for a quarter of travellers.
Respondents echoed recent comments by the former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Tarique Ghaffur, with 29% saying terrorism was the biggest challenge to London’s delivery of an outstanding Games. This was followed by lack of public support (17%) and financial cutbacks (14%).
While 52% thought that London was going to do a good job in keeping them informed about plans and progress, current perceptions make dismal reading for the organisers
The world’s travellers rated the London Olympics bad/very poor for: financial control (68%), on-time (72%), sports facilities (75%), spectator facilities (70%) and public support (73%) respectively.
Asked how they expect the overall quality of London 2012 visitor experience will compare with other summer Olympic Games, 29% said worse, 23% much worse, while 27% said they thought it would be a good experience. Only four per cent said it would be better, and two per cent, much better.
According to 38% of respondents, the main factor deterring travellers from visiting London during the Olympics will be high costs.
The visitor experience priority for London 2012 was to be friendlier, according to 31%. Twenty-nine per cent said keeping costs down while only eight percent said better public transport.
However, some 67% said that despite all the economic, political, logistical, security and social changes, London was still the right choice to host the Games in 2012.
Fifty nine per cent also thought that the potential benefits the Olympics will bring to London justify the cost, now estimated to be in the region of £9 billion.
WAYN co-founder Jerome Touze said “Clearly there is a huge amount of interest in London’s Olympics Games and the event does have the potential to be the biggest visitor attraction ever.
“However, if that potential is going to be converted into serious visitor numbers, London urgently needs to address the negative perceptions and key concerns highlighted by our survey.
“It may be that attitudes have been tainted by reports about costs and cutbacks but the risks associated with London 2012 being considered a second class event should not be taken lightly.
“Meanwhile there also needs to be reassurance about containing the threat of terrorism and about containing costs and last but not least a major charm offensive to show the friendly face of London.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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