London Banter - View Single Post

Richard J. · March 15th 07, 09:57 PM posted to uk.transport.london

Paul Terry wrote:
In message ,
writes

I am not prepared to put up with any extra outgoings from my
wallet or any inconvenience caused by them .

Its probable that a certain amount of tourist income will be
generated, but experience shows that it usually falls well short of
the estimates (remember those thousands of empty seats in the
broadcasts from Athens?).

I've never been wholly persuaded by the "regeneration" arguments. Of
course, Barcelona is always rightly quoted as the classic example -
but there the Olympics opened-up a seafront that was hitherto an
industrial wasteland and revitalised old attractions on the
beautiful Montjuic site. East London may need regeneration, but
rest assured that millions of tourists won't be flocking to
Stratford once the games have ended.
if the frogs want em let em have em I say

They never did. I was in Paris just before the Olympic bid, and
there was absolutely minimal publicity or enthusiasm. A couple of
hotel owners I spoke to actually said that the bid would ruin the
Parisian economy and totally distort their lucrative tourist
income. One of them did have the courtesy to thank me that London's
mistake would relieve them of decades of debt (and that was well
before London's escalating costs were revealed).

But they *are* going ahead with regeneration of the area they would have
used for the Olympics. The plans were announced in the press when I was
last in Paris.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)