LONDON - With its half-empty restaurants and calm streets, central London
looks more like a ghost town than an Olympic city, and recession-hit traders
are still waiting for the promised gold rush of tourists.
Sales are down across the normally crowded British capital after warnings of
travel chaos and overpriced hotel rooms apparently scared off many visitors,
while those who did come are staying around the Olympic Park in east London.
"Compared to last year, people are just not coming," said Michelle Wade, who
runs Maison Bertaux in the trendy Soho area, which claims to be London's oldest
patisserie.
"It's not just for this kind of business. Even my friend - he's a very well
known hairdresser - but last Saturday he only had two clients. Normally it's
about 24." Halfway through the Games the mood is unusually calm in Soho, a
usually busy area in the centre of the capital, several kilometres from
Stratford, where the Olympic Park is located.
In an empty men's clothes store, manager Rob Grogan said there had been a 30
per cent drop in customers in the week after the Olympics started on July 27,
compared to the week before that. "We were told by Transport for London, the
local council and Westminster council that we'd probably see an increase in
footfall and traffic and the resulting increase in sales as well - that hasn't
happened," he said.
He said warnings earlier in the year to avoid central London had "scared a
lot of people away from London".
In the run-up to the Olympics, commuters and tourists alike were warned to
stay away, amid fears the creaking transport system could not cope with
millions of athletes, support staff, media and spectators descending on the
capital.
The Games have long been heralded as a key boost to the recession-hit
British economy but industry body the European Tour Operators Association said
tourist numbers had fallen "dramatically" since the Games began.
And the transport chaos has failed to materialise. Prime Minister David
Cameron even appealed to people recently to come back into the deserted
capital.
"It is rubbish, we don't want this nonsense any more," said a woman who runs
several souvenir shops and stalls on Oxford Street, which is normally Europe's
busiest shopping thoroughfare.
Gesturing at an empty store, the woman, who asked not to be named, added:
"The tourists should be here, we rely on them, but now they are not interested.
They are not spending, they don't have a penny, this is the wrong crowd."
Outside a McDonald's restaurant on Oxford Street three young tourists who
came from Amsterdam to watch the qualifying rounds for the Olympic tennis and
hockey were eating hamburgers. They said they were staying at a campsite and
were spending no money in central London. "It is not why we came here, not at
all," said Marianne, 27, one of the tourists.
Swedish visitors Ann and Soren Forsberg said they had come to London at the
last minute to see the equestrian events and the triathlon after getting a
special deal for airline tickets. "We haven't been in the shops, we are not
here to shop this time."
[Photo: Tourists pose for photos in front of the 'House of Flags' art
installation commemorating the countries participating in the 2012 London
Olympic Games at Parliament Square in central London on July 26, 2012.]
LONDON BEFORE THE GAMES BEGAN
Two tourists stand under Union flag umbrellas as they take pictures from
London Bridge, of Tower Bridge adorned with the Olympic rings, on a wet
summer's morning in central London July 6, 2012.
The 2012 Olympic mascot Wenlock (L) and Paralympic mascot Mandeville pose for
photographers in the playground at St. Paul's primary school in London in a May
19, 2010 file photo.
A tourist bus passes under the national flags of different countries in Regent
Street in central London, on July 12, 2012, ahead of the start of the London
2012 Olympic Games on July 27, 2012.
Tourists take photos of a replica of a British Telecom phone box designed as a
miniature "Big Ben" (R), with the actual clock tower in the background, in
central London, on July 15, 2012.
The Millennium Diamond catamaran is seen at a port in Pula July 17, 2012.
Measuring 37 meters long and 17.5 meters wide, it can carry about 600
passengers at once, and is built for the London 2012 Olympic Games to ferry
tourists on the River Thames.
The interior of the Millennium Diamond catamaran is seen as it docks at a port
in Pula July 17, 2012. Measuring 37 meters long and 17.5 meters wide, it can
carry 600 passengers at once, and is built for the London 2012 Olympic Games to
ferry tourists on the River Thames. The catamaran gets its name from its
diamond shape and the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Britain's Queen
Elizabeth.
The interior of the Millennium Diamond catamaran is seen as it docks at a port
in Pula July 17, 2012.
A view of seats on the deck of the Millennium Diamond catamaran at a port in
Pula July 17, 2012.
The interior of the Millennium Diamond catamaran is seen as it docks at a port
in Pula July 17, 2012.
