Countries such as Germany, South Africa and the UK hoping to win over more tourists by hosting a world sporting event like the Olympics or World Cup may end up in last place, actually suffering a decline in tourism, according to a report this week.
In contrast to yesterday's bullish display in Trafalgar Square, worrying research from the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) reveals that Olympic host nations see a reduction in tourism levels leading up to and after the event, while World Cup hosts often have to wait a year to reap the benefits of increased visitors.
ETOA executive director Tom Jenkins said: "Olympic visitors tend not to be big consumers of sightseeing excursions; neither are they committed visitors to museums, historic monuments and other classic tourist attractions."
But yesterday's presentation in Trafalgar Square marking London's first year as host city for the 2012 Olympics gave out a different message.
Seb Coe, Chairman of the London 2012 Games declared: "The Games will do great things for the quality of life in East London, sparking the biggest urban regeneration programme in over 100 years and bringing many thousands of new jobs; the economic benefits will spread throughout Britain."
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's website states that between 50% and 75% of the economic benefits from the Olympics are expected to go to the tourism sector and much of that gain is expected to be generated from incoming visitors to the UK in the period 2008-2017. But tourism industry figures do not reveal any significant positive or negative long-term effects of major sporting events on visiting numbers.
Tourist offices in nations that have previously held the World Cup detected a brief surge in visitors during the competition, with levels returning to normal afterwards and no evidence of sustained growth.
An astonishing estimate of around 300,000 was made by a Foreign Office spokesperson for the number of British football fans that have travelled to Germany so far. Portugal also accommodated a great influx of UK fans when they hosted Euro 2004. However, Portuguese tourism authorities recorded drop of 87,000 in the number of regular British holidaymakers during the game.
"The presence of the Olympics deters regular tourists: they perceive that the city will be full, disrupted, congested and over-priced," explained the ETOA. This factor also seems to apply to international football.
Portugal's UK tourist figures did rise again in 2005 and statistics for the London Olympics also predict that holiday tourism to the UK will peak in the year after the games due to suppressed visits in 2012.
This particular trend appears to occur in nations with an already stable tourist industry; however less visited nations such as South Korea have had a different experience.
Director of Korea Tourism Organisation's London Office Mr Sang-Hoon Na said: "There was a marked rise in tourism to South Korea which was directly related to the exposure the country received following both the Olympics and the 2002 World Cup."
Even the profiles of participating countries such as Ghana have been raised due to their appearance at this year's World Cup. South Africa's game plan for 2010 is to achieve a similar success on the world stage, but it remains to be seen whether it will hit its goals or get sent off.
