Tourism South East Says Olympic Win Spells Gold For The South East
Tourism South East has welcomed the announcement that the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in London.
Industry leaders believe that between 50 - 75% of Britain's net benefit of staging the Games, measured over a 7-10 year period, will be accrued through tourism. Based on Sydney's example, the Games could be worth well over £2 billion to our visitor economy.
Bob Collier, managing director of Tourism South East said: "The IOC's decision confirms London's and Britain's places among the world's leading visitor destinations. It is as much a vote of confidence for Britain's tourism and leisure facilities as it is for our sporting venues and events."
The tourism prospects for London and the South East were already excellent. VisitBritain predicts that every nation and region within Britain is now likely to receive additional leisure and business visitors in the years before, during and after the Games.
"The Games provide a great platform to boost the international marketing of both London and neighbouring regions as leisure, business and sporting destinations, particularly in new and emerging markets such as China, Greece, Korea, Poland and Thailand," said Bob Collier.
Britain is easily capable of accommodating all these additional visitors and the tourism industry will now focus on delivering the best possible experience. VisitBritain will lead this process, working with its regional partners - including Tourism South East - to showcase the world-class tourism products and services that Britain has to offer and further raise the standard of welcome that visitors receive.
Tourism is already worth almost £74 billion a year to the UK (of which over £13 billion comes from international visitors) and employs 7% of Britain's workforce. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has set a target to increase the value of tourism to £100 billion by 2010, recognising this as the key to further wealth and job creation for our economy.
For further information, contact Alan Gallop or Jodie Hodge in TSE Corporate Communications on 023 8062 5465.