Olympic Tourism

From The Independent:

[Jeremy Hunt] said he was not disappointed by reports of empty streets and a dramatic fall in trade since the Games began.

"It is very difficult to predict what will actually happen to consumer spending in one part of London during something like an Olympic games because the upheaval is so huge. We are hoping to come away net positive in terms of the overall period of the Games but we don't know."

Well, not really. Economists have looked at the figures for the last three Olympiads and if Jeremy Hunt had done the same, he'd know that they show no or little tourism boost, either short- or long-term from hosting the Olympics.

What you get from the Olympics is a three-week sporting/marketing festival. That's it. Love the sport, but it has to be pointed out that we are paying a huge amount of money for the right to see the handball from the inside of a stadium in London rather than the inside of a stadium in Paris.