The FT's reported this morning:
The Olympics is creating a “ghost town” effect in central London as visitors who would normally flock to the capital's shops, hotels and theatres stay away, casting doubt on expectations of a short-term economic boost from the games. The games have attracted as many as 100,000 foreign visitors to London — more than in previous Olympics. But, on its own, that number significantly lags behind the estimated 300,000 foreign tourists who could be expected in a typical year.
I'm not surprised hat it's reported tourist numbers are down 30% for many London venues. People from home and abroad are avoiding London. Given the number of empty seats on view it even looks like they're avoiding the Olympics. And the combination of this downturn in tourist activity coupled with the crash in building activity and the fall in employment that the making redundant of all those on temporary Olympics contracts will create will mean that next quarter's GDP figures, and the one after that, may look very ugly indeed.
We could be in for an Olympic sized recession.
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The final cost of the 2012 Olympics could be as high as £15billion and the much vaunted “legacy” (an adman’s figment of the imagination) will be, like Athens, little more than decaying, looted slums. This money should have been used to replace/improve Britain’s decaying schools, hospitals, roads and railways — perhaps with £1 billion set aside for new provincial sporting facilities; although UK child poverty organisations should supplant even this.
This investment would have provided long term employment opportunities and a real legacy for the country — instead of 18 days of less than well organised over-hyped profligacy where the only real winners are global fast food chains whose tax “arrangements” may not be entirely transparent.
Spoil sports?
No: Humanists