London game for high hotel rates

London may not be the top-selling destination for Indian travellers next summer, when the Olympic Games would be hosted in the city. For, hotel prices are expected to hit the roof at the time of the Games (scheduled for July 27 to August 12).

“Leisure travellers may not travel to London during that period if hotels are too expensive. The airlines’ cost would also escalate due to high demand,” said Vijay Thakur, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators.

Several hotels are already at loggerheads with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog). “Some of the rooms we allocated to Locog have now been passed on to a third party, which has significantly marked these up. It is for this reason that we have requested Locog to withdraw our rooms from the third party,” said Natalie McConnon, spokesperson, Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants.

Earlier this month, Whitbread Group's Premier Inn withdrew the discounted rooms from Locog. Other hotels like the Thistle Group and Hilton Worldwide were reportedly planning a similar course over the issue.

Ticket sales and hotel bookings have already begun for the Games. To rein in hotel prices due to an upsurge in demand, the authorities in London, along with London & Partners, official promotional agency for the United Kingdom, is designing a London Visit Charter for fair price practices.

“Although the Olympics give an edge to tourism, there will be huge pressure on room inventories. London will be choc-o-bloc and the fact that India is a late booking market would not help much,” said Deep Kalra, founder, MakeMyTrip.

In 2010, about 366,000 Indians visited Britain and spent £358 million. This year, British Tourism is expecting an upward trend in numbers, towards the 500,000 mark. “The 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games give us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to market Britain when the eyes of the world will be on London, and we are well placed to take full advantage of this development,” said Paramjit Bawa, country manager, India, VisitBritain.

To promote tourism, several acitivities are being planned in the run up to the final event, starting with the World Badminton Championship, then ‘200 years of Charles Dickens’, followed by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in the beginning of June. The promotional agency is going to start a ‘Limited Edition London’ campaign to boost tourism across the world.

“Sport tourism in India is catching up and London is a very attractive destination. We will introduce travel packages around Diwali time,” said Arjun Sharma, managing director, Le Passage to India.

British Tourism in India aspires to attain a figure of one million visitors per year to Britain this country within the next 10 years.