Firstly i would like to say that i am not against the Olympics, it is a great tradition, that really gives sportsmen and women a chance to shine in their fields. I am also not against Olympics in London, it will undoubtedly provide regeneration to the host boroughs (Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest - sadly not lewisham!) through improvement of facilities and mid term employment.

However, in honour of this being an informed discussion, i wanted to reply to Michael about London tourism in 2012. I work for one of the large tourism associations, and i wanted to add comment that in fact the UK tourism industry is very worried about the effect the Olympics will have. 65% of accomodation has already been booked out by the organisors. This is because the olympics involves hundreds of athletes. each of those athletes is expected to bring a large party of trainers, managers, family etc. Also there will be a lot of press staying in London for the course of the games. These rooms are booked out already, and so far the organisors will only commit to releasing unused rooms last minute. This is something the tourism associations are lobbying against, as tour operators, who plan two years in advance, are sadly taking London out of their repertoire for that summer, as there will be nowhere for visitors to stay. By association other destination cities such as Stratford and York will also be taken out of programming.

Of course, there will be a big influx of people who are directly here for the olympics, and they will stay in those rooms, and eat in restaurants, but studies show that they do not make use of the host cities other attractions, which generate the largest tourism income.

It is a big issue that tourism associations such as ETOA, Visit London and Visit Britain, and parliament members, are working on to find ways of creating displacement, but for now it remains unsolved.

for a few more statistics have a look here http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/summer...ct-tourism