Londoners Hope Olympics Will Put Their Town On Map
Londoners are particularly proud of this tower with a clock in it
LONDON (The Global Edition) – In a recent survey conducted by Visit London, the town’s tourism agency, Londoners expressed the hope that hosting the Olympic Games will put their town on map, and “finally pull in some visitors”.
London, a city isolated from the rest of the world, stuck in an inaccessible corner of one the islands that make up the United Kingdom that itself a barely known confederation near Europe, was lucky to win the organization of the Games back in 2005 in a lottery conducted by the Olympic Committee. The city has been struggling with a stagnant economy and a flat housing market for decades, and the upcoming Olympic Games are seen by many as a way out of the slump.
“It’s been very tough lately, with salaries barely enough to provide for food and cost of living. Hopefully this tourism thing will bring in some fresh money to the city,” says one of survey participants Rebecca Barley (32), a senior banker from West Kensington.
Londoners are also hoping that the event will “attract at least several dozens of sport enthusiasts from all over the world to their godforsaken town”, and give them a chance to improve the city’s image. “We are more than just rain and fish and chips”, said Paul Hummington, resident of Chelsea, who also took part in the poll. “There’s this tower with a clock that’s very interesting, and also, we have a palace where the royal family lives, which is pretty rare these days,” he added.
Survey participants also expressed their readiness to welcome visitors and hoped tourists would not be “put off” by traffic jams that sometimes plague the town’s roads or the periodic shutdowns of the public transport system which the indigenous people tried to solve by adding an extra deck on their buses.
