Hospitality welcomes London's bid to stage 2012 Olympic Games

26 January 2004 by
Hospitality welcomes London's bid to stage 2012 Olympic Games

Hosting the 2012 Olympic Games would generate at least £610m in tourism revenue for the UK, according to a report released by consultants Arup, in advance of the launch of London's bid last week.

Tourism and hospitality leaders welcomed the bid. A British Hospitality Association spokesman said: "We are very supportive of the bid as we believe it would create huge additional demand for accommodation and restaurants".

A VisitLondon spokeswoman said: "Hosting such a large-scale international event would boost London's tourism revenue, boost London's profile worldwide and the regeneration of east London would leave a legacy for the city."

The Sydney games, which were watched by 3.7 billion people over 16 days, led to a £2b hike in Australia's inbound tourism expenditure.

The Arup report also revealed that, with an estimated 500,000 visitors expected to visit the capital each day during the games if London wins the bid, hoteliers could expect a huge boost in business. But it said London already had enough hotels to cope with the demand.

At present there are more than 70,000 three- to five-star hotel rooms within a six-mile radius of the city centre, and 20,000 more are planned for the next eight years. Some 4,000 of those rooms are under construction and the remainder have planning permission.

Graham Dodd, London hotels director at Christie & Co, warned that although adding more hotel rooms to London was the only way to cope with the large numbers of visitors expected, hoteliers were not and should not open hotels they could not fill after the games.

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