Travel Weekly Blog

Some interesting issues, which 18 months ago would never have existed here in the UK, have emerged in recent weeks, most notably at the recent European Tour Operators Association annual conference

UK tourism chiefs were unwittingly ambushed in their attempts to convince skeptical inbound operators and London hoteliers the 2012 Olympics isn’t going to harm their businesses.

VisitBritain chief executive Tom Wright started his speech by conceding they had concerns the Olympics would disrupt their operations by doubling hotel rates and scaring away tourist from the capital.

He ended by stating “the weeks of the Games will not be as detrimental as you all think”.

However, Wright was unaware all delegates were given data revealing that during the 2006 Football World Cup, German hotel occupancy levels fall by 3% with governing body FIFA returning more than one million blocked booked rooms for hoteliers to sell at the last minute.

Meanwhile, VisitLondon chief executive James Bidwell waxed lyrical about the need to tap into the emerging Chinese market, urging delegates to use Beijing’s handing over of the Olympic Torch at the end of the 2008 Games to entice visitors to London.

He even boasted London would hold Chinese Festivals to stimulate demand for the capital from China.

Had Bidwell stayed for the following presentation he would have heard Mintel researcher Macy Marvel dismiss the Chinese outbound tourism market as “overblown”.

The report – European Inbound Market Outlook - labels Chinese tourists as bargain basement travellers who are uninterested in Europe and its culture – 90% of them stay in Asia while those that do go to Europe look for room rates of 20 Euros per person per night.

Needless to say the delegates still needed convincing…

Paul Nelson, reporter