The Olympics brought less tourist money to recession-hit Britain than officials expected, a trade group said on Monday. Majority of tourist businesses reported losses from last year. 

A survey commissioned by trade body UKinbound of more than 250 tour operators, hoteliers and visitor attractions found that tourist traffic fell all over Britain, not just London. UKinbound is a leading trade association representing British tour operators, shops and hotels. The survey said 88 percent of British tourism-oriented businesses reported some losses during the games compared to the same period last year. Two thirds said that the number of tourists fell more than 10 per cent.

"As an industry we knew the games would have a negative impact on international visitor numbers to London but the impact on the rest of the U.K., combined with domestic visitors staying away, has been deeply disappointing,'' said Rita Beckwith, chief executive of London's City Cruises, a member of UKinbound. 

Officials are still tallying up the total number of tourists who came to,or avoided London this summer. The capital normally sees about 1.5 million tourists on average in August, but UKinbound and other trade groups say a significant number have chosen to steer clear of London, and even the rest of Britain because they thought it would be too busy. 

The group said that this illustrates that many travellers chose to skip Britain entirely because it would have required travel into London, the UK's main point of entry.

The official visitor figures won't be available until September. 

Tourism officials say that international Olympics visitors to London, including athletes, officials and tourists, totaled about 300,000. Domestic spectators from Britain made up the majority of people visiting games venues.

Restaurants and shops have complained that these games visitors did not spend as much money on food and shopping as typical summer tourists.

(You need to login first to read complete news).
New User? Register for FREE!
» Back to Travel News