Over the last few days images of London riots have been shown across the world. As the violence and looting calms down, thoughts are now turning to fears of the city’s tourism suffering severely just a year ahead of the Olympic Games.
Only seven miles from the Olympic Stadium, the rioting broke out in Tottenham where there was wide spread crime, burning buildings and vehicles.
Visit London says it is too early to anticipate the effect the violence will have on visitor numbers but said it was monitoring the situation closely.
Coverage of the riots in the international press, lead Germany to issue travel advice to its citizens, telling them to exercise ‘special caution’ in the wake of the troubles.
Its travel advisory stated: ‘Travellers should also look to the media to keep themselves informed about the latest developments and act in an appropriate fashion locally.’
In India, the editor of the country’s Lonely Planet magazine told his Twitter followers to avoid coming to the UK at all.
Vardhan Kondvikar said: ‘Violence has now spread to Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool.
‘Try not to travel to the UK this week if possible.’
And Latvia went a step further, advising citizens to avoid parts of Britain and ensure they have health and life insurance policies.
Sweden, Denmark and Finland quickly followed its lead by issuing safety advice to stay vigilant and keep an eye on local media and British websites for safety updates.
It has also been highlighted that the violence in the city will now leave London trying to defend the safety of the Games, according to the New York Times.
The respected paper stated: ‘With the Games set to begin in barely 12 months, Britain will have to satisfy Olympic officials that there is no major risk of the Games being disrupted, or ruined, by a replay of the rioting.’
A spokesperson for the 2012 Olympics insisted perspective visitors to the Games should not be deterred, telling TravelMail: ‘We have already made detailed security reviews with the police and the Home Office and will continue to do so in the run up to the Olympic Games.’
