In August, UK is riding the olympic surf

The most celebrated international sporting event, which this year took place in London between the 27th July and 12th August, was expected to bring about an estimated 300,000 foreign visitors and around 600,000 British holiday-makers to city during that fortnight according to government statistics, justifying the £9bn that were spent on the Games. Initially optimistic, Tom Jenkins, Executive Director of the European Tour Operators Association said: “It is important to emphasise how well London is doing compared with other Olympic Games, and what good news there is for potential visitors.” Yet many were dubious from the start about the impact, at least in the short-term, that this would have on tourism figures and hotel occupancy rates. Market studies by MKG Hospitality confirm these doubts, showing occupancy rates in London fell 0.3 points to 85.9% in the month of August.However, the same cannot be said about Average Daily Rates and RevPAR, both of which saw sharp rises. ADR in reached €164.4, up 36.3% and RevPAR rose 35.8% to €141.2 in London in the month of August. A trend which is reflects in the UK as a whole: occupancy rates across all categories rose by a mere 0.8 percentage points to 78.7%, whilst ADR and RevPAR rose by 20.1% and 21.3% respectively. The 4* segment saw the sharpest increase in both ADR and RevPAR, up 24.2% to 137.7 and 26.4% to 108.7 respectively; the 2* seeing the highest rise in occupancy rates: up 2.8 points to 81.1%.Figures which seem consistent with statements about the country and London in particular during the games, with witnesses comparing the city to a ghost town; whilst the Olympics indeed did attract visitors these were “not necessarily interested in London as a tourist destination,” according to Tom Jenkins, and the city’s usual tourists chose to avoid the...