I was in London this week; despite the warnings about not being able to move for the crowd of millions heave-hoing from one Olympic venue to the next. I needed to be be there for a number of meetings.
It was amazingly quiet! St Pancras was a bit busier than normal, probably down to the kettling one-way system – and the people stopping to be given free ice creams? Oh, and the very confusing signs.
I suspect that what has happened here is that the ordinary working population of London have stayed away. They have worked from home. Or travelled at times when the paying crowds are ensconced in their seats. In the week I heard an interview with a hotelier from the Lake District who told us that the Japanese tourists had all but gone – presumably at the Olympics. But in their place were some crafty cockneys – who have clearly abandoned ‘the smoke’ for the quieter lanes of Ullswater et al.
I had also heard some stories about Hotels trying to charge over-inflated room rates (£500 per night) who had seen bookings tumble and they were having to offer at £75-100. It serves them right for joining the rip-off Britain ranks.
But I can’t help but wonder if London (or perhaps more importantly – the UK) will have really benefitted from the games? Have the influx of people simply cancelled out those who are there everyday ordinarily. I can’t help but wonder. I guess though that we’ll never know. The evaluation of the cost benefit analysis of the games will be clouded by fuzzy headlines – around ‘profile’ and ‘feel-good’ rather than hard cash.
Is “hard cash” the best measure of success for a venture such as the Olympics though? Surely the impact of the Olympics goes beyond that? Factors such as social welfare are inevitably more “fuzzy” and difficult to quantify, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore them.
Yes – you have a point, but we need to measure the success somehow? And as the Olympics cost £24bn of your and my money, I would like some assurance that there is some sort of balancing going on?
The Olympics are not even finished yet and you are grumbling about the results of it. I also paid my bit for the olympics and I’m enjoying it. Most of the contracting was done by British companies providing jobs. If you look at Atlanta for example which hosted the olympics in 1996 now has the busiest airport in the world and is now has 15 Fortune 500 corporations headquarters there. So actually this could be a good thing for London.
Enjoy the Olympics while its here – the money is spent they wont refund you how ever much you moan!
The legacy may be seen in a few years – I was merely observing that London was not as busy as I expected. A lot of people have stayed away… As for the legacy it leaves – only time will tell! PS I like moaning.
The workers are here, but it’s also school holiday season so people will be out of town for that reason as well. Commuters are also trying hard to stay away from areas which are branded “hotspots” so my (arbitrary and subjective) view is that the numbers of my fellow travellers to work are not greatly different given the time of year.
Hi Richard – that’s an interesting observation. The Estates Gazette this week suggested that shop takings in London are down – when they had hoped that they would go up… Best wishes, Tim