London expected to suffer leisure tourism slump during 2012 Olympics

A new survey has found that London is set to suffer 95 percent leisure tourism slump during the Olympic Games in 2012.

The survey conducted by the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) says that a significant downturn is expected in July and August, where operators are currently seeing a 60 percent shortfall in bookings.

It is expected to become acute during the period of the Olympic Games where bookings are running at 95 percent below where they would normally be.

Bookings for the rest of the year are running at 20 percent below this time last year.

“This is still very early in the booking cycle. And only reflects what our normal leisure customers are doing. We always see a decline in demand for a destination during an Olympic year,” Xinhua quoted Tom Jenkins, Executive Director of ETOA, as saying.

“Clients tend to think that a city has priorities other than being a place to visit for a normal holiday, so some of this was to be expected. But this tendency is becoming absolute as the hotel rates climb in July and August.”

“During the Olympic period itself, there is currently almost no demand from regular tourists. For foreign visitors there is near total displacement by the Games,” he added.