The aim of this paper is to examine a new relationship between “Olympic Games and Tourism”, focusing mainly on the analysis of tourism policies and the urban regeneration in the case of the 2012 London Games.
The Olympic Games were originally conceived as international sports events, but they go beyond just being global sports events in the contemporary era. The Olympic Games have been increasingly related with cultural policies, tourism policies, and urban regeneration, as the IOC presented the importance of “promoting a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host cities and host countries” since the beginning of the 21st century.
Through looking at the London 2012 Games, this paper found out the following points; First, UK successfully leveraged the opportunity of the 2012 Games to promote tourism under the “Great Campaign”. Second, the London 2012 Games was also strategically used as a catalyst for the urban renewal in the east London areas. More than ten years’ process of the urban regeneration around the Olympic park at Stratford has led to a birth of “world-class destination of London”, which can be considered as an important achievement from the viewpoint of tourism. Third, however, the “destination” in this case implies “a good place to live, stay, work, and invest” (like the concept of a creative city), rather than just the sightseeing spot. This means that the tourism policy in the context of recent Olympic Games covers multiple aspects, including a project of creating a destination in a host city as well as that of promotion campaigns.
Thus, through this analysis, this paper stresses the importance of exploring how and why the recent Olympic Games are linked with tourism, because they are now increasingly used as a catalyst for urban regeneration along with promoting tourism. This is true of the case of the Tokyo 2020 Games, and it is important for tourism researchers to analyse the interconnection between the tourism policy and the urban regeneration around Tokyo Games’ site.
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