World’s Travellers Have Low Opinion About 2012 Plan and Progress High Costs and Terrorism the Biggest Deterrents for Visitors Londoners Need to be More Friendly

London, December 18, 2008: The 2012 London Olympics has been forecast to create a £2 billion bonanza for the city’s visitor business but tourism chiefs have their doubts and now, according to the findings of the biggest research project to-date on the subject, so it seems do the world’s travellers.

WAYN.com (Where Are You Now?), the world’s largest online travel community and network with nearly 15m members, has conducted the biggest survey of its kind among potential visitors to London to find out their opinions about the plans and progress for the Olympiad. The survey involved some 7500 travellers around the world, 22 percent of whom had previously visited a city when it was hosting the Olympics.

The survey’s report shows that there are widespread negative attitudes among travellers about London’s Olympics and an overall perception that these are going to be a second class Games. There are also key concerns about high costs and the threat of terrorism but London remains the right choice and the Games still have the potential to be a major visitor attraction.

Dismal Reading for Coe and Co

London has a big marketing job to do if it is to realise the full 2012 visitor potential and that £2 billion target. While just over half (52 percent) of WAYN respondents thought that London was going to do a good job in keeping them informed about plans and progress, current perceptions make dismal reading for Lord Coe and Co. From what they know now, the world’s travellers rated the London Olympics bad/very poor for; financial control (68 percent), on-time (72 percent), sports facilities (75 percent), spectator facilities (70 percent) and public support (73 percent) respectively.

Expectations Not So Great

Asked how they expect the overall quality of London 2012 visitor experience will compare with other summer Olympic Games, 29 percent said worse, 23 percent much worse, while 27 percent said they thought it would be a good experience. Only four percent said it would be better, and two percent, much better.

Never Mind the Quality What About the Cost?

Quality perceptions however may not be the main determinant as to whether 2012 is a tourism success story for London. According to 38 percent of respondents the main factor deterring travellers from visiting London during the Olympics will be high costs.

In addition, perhaps Londoners should think about dropping their reserved cool and be a little more welcoming. The visitor experience priority for London 2012 was to be friendlier, say 31 percent of respondents. Twenty-nine percent said keeping costs down while only eight percent said better public transport.

Terrorist Threat the Biggest Challenge

The ever present threat of terrorism was also considered to be the main visitor deterrent for 25 percent of travellers. Respondents echoed recent comments by the former Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Tarique Ghaffur, with 29 percent saying that terrorism was the biggest challenge to London’s delivery of an outstanding Games. This was followed by lack of public support (17 percent) and financial cutbacks (14 percent).

London Still the Right Choice and Worth It

However it is not all bad news for London. The Minister for the Olympics, Tessa Jowell, has been widely reported as saying that there would not have been a London bid to host the games “had we known what we know now”. The majority of the world travellers however disagree with some 67 percent saying that despite all the economic, political, logistical, security and social changes, London was still the right choice to host the Games in 2012. Fifty nine percent also think that the potential benefits the Olympics will bring to London justify the cost, now estimated to be in the region of £9 billion.

Travellers Prefer London to Paris

And, despite the “told you so” retort from some French commentators, 62 percent said that London would provide a better visitor experience than Paris for the 2012 Games. Visitor Attractions WAYN’s survey also shows the Olympics could still be a major tourist attraction for London. Concern in some quarters about whether the Games could be a turn-off for visitors appear to be unfounded, with only 16 percent of WAYN respondents saying that they would be less likely to visit during the 2012 Olympics. Conversely, 47 percent said that they could be more likely to visit the city. London’s traditional tourism assets continue to be a major draw with 26 percent of respondents saying that as well as sports, culture and history would be the biggest attraction for travellers visiting London during the 2012 Olympics.

Said WAYN Co Founder Jerome Touze, “recently there has been a lot of talk about what benefits the Olympics might or might not bring to London and the UK’s tourism industry and we thought it was time to ask potential visitors around the world what they thought. The response was tremendous with 7559 travellers participating in just a few days.

“Clearly there is a huge amount of interest in London’s Olympics Games and the event does have the potential to be the biggest visitor attraction ever. However if that potential is going to be converted into serious visitor numbers, London urgently needs to address the negative perceptions and key concerns highlighted by our survey. It may be that attitudes have been tainted by reports about costs and cutbacks but the risks associated with London 2012 being considered a second class event should not be taken lightly. Meanwhile there also needs to be reassurance about containing the threat of terrorism and about containing costs and last but not least a major charm offensive to show the friendly face of London.”

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About www.wayn.com

WAYN.com (Where Are You Now?) is the world's largest travel and lifestyle focused social networking community website. The site operates in 193 countries and membership has grown from 45,000 users in March 2005 to over 14 million today. WAYN.com allows its members to keep track of their friends' whereabouts and make new friends based on where they are now, where they have been and where they're going. Top services on WAYN.com include travel guide and trip planning tools, unlimited photo and video storage; interaction tools such as email, SMS and instant messenger, forums and travel related tools and products. Headquartered in London, UK WAYN was founded by entrepreneurs Pete Ward, 30, and pal Jerome Touze, 29, who started the site in their spare time after returning home from a 'round-the-world' trip in 2003.