LONDON OLYMPICS 2012

The Success of the London 2012 Bid for the Olympics



The Success of the London 2012 Bid for the Olympics

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to enlighten and explore the grounds that resulted into the success of the London 2012 bid for the Olympics. The London bid, led by Sebastian Coe, a former gold medal-winning middle-distance runner, featured a plan to redevelop the suburbs east of London, Stratford, one of Britain's poorest regions. One day after the IOC vote, London was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks on its transportation system. IOC communications director Giselle Davies July 7 said the attacks would have no effect for granting the opportunity to host the 2012 Olympic Games to London. "We have full confidence in the London authorities for a secure Olympic Games," she said.

According to the report of IOC, a meeting in Singapore was conducted in which London succeeded with maximum votes for earning an opportunity to be an honourable host for the 2012 Olympics. It would be the third time London hosted the Summer Olympics, after 1908 and 1948. London defeated four other finalists--Paris; New York City; Madrid, Spain; and Moscow, Russia--in four rounds of voting. Moscow was eliminated after the first round, New York after the second, and Madrid after the third. In the final round of voting, London received 54 votes, and Paris received 50. Paris had initially been the favourite to win the Games, but last-minute lobbying by the British delegation in Singapore.

Visitor Forecasting

Number of foreign visitors: 350,000 per day during the Olympic period (Hotel Industry Magazine). Tickets go on sale in March 2011. Tickets to the Opening Ceremony will cost between £20 and £2,012. There are 8.8 million tickets available for the 2012 Games (Roche, 2000, 89). Ticket prices for different events vary across the 39 disciplines but London 2012 says 90% of the tickets will cost less than £100, two-thirds will cost less than £50 and there will be 2.5 million tickets at £20 or less. Another two million tickets (in addition to the 8.8 million) will be on sale for the Paralympics Games. Rail operators will need to provide extra trains to ensure fans attending the Games in 2012 can make it back to the region without the need for expensive overnight accommodation (Bass, 2002, 101).

When the ticket prices for the Games were released, fears were expressed that many families would be priced out of attending. It was estimated that a family of four from Newcastle would have to spend up to £500 just to attend one evening session of the Olympic program, with return travel and overnight accommodation in London adding to the overall cost. However, Games organizers are aware of the problem, and are ready to work with rail providers such as East Coast to ensure services leave London as late as midnight during the duration of the Games. The organizing committee has also appointed travel agent Thomas Cook as its short-break travel provider for London 2012 (Matthews, 2005, ...