CHTM33 - Assessing the Social-Cultural Impact of London 2012 Olympics

This report analyzes the social and cultural legacy of the London 2012 Olympic Games. It discusses the background and cultural influence of the Olympics, including its role in integrating culture into the host nation's communities, improving intercultural sharing, and enhancing the nation's profile. The report also examines the development of new jobs, distinct cultural values, new partnerships, media coverage, and the culture of tourism that emerged during the Games. It further explores the social legacy, focusing on developments like the Westfield shopping center, property development around Stratford, and housing schemes. The report concludes by highlighting the positive impact of the Olympics on the city and its community.

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TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
By (name)
Name of the course
Tutor’s name
Name of the university or college
Name of the country and city where its located
Date

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Table of content
Table of content..........................................................................................................................................2
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................3
The social-culture of London Olympic games 2012.....................................................................................4
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................4
The background information...................................................................................................................4
The cultural legacy...................................................................................................................................6
The development of new jobs.............................................................................................................8
The distinct values...............................................................................................................................8
Emergence of the new partnership.....................................................................................................8
The media coverage............................................................................................................................9
The culture of tourism.........................................................................................................................9
The social legacy of mega London Olympic games 2012.......................................................................11
The Westfield.....................................................................................................................................14
The Hughes property development around the Stratford Olympics city...........................................17
The housing schemes.........................................................................................................................18
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................19
References.................................................................................................................................................20
Appendix...................................................................................................................................................24

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Executive summary
The mega Olympic London 2012 played a key part in raising the profile of an international and
local venues of United Kingdom. The previous research has shown that the 2012 Olympics held
in London attracted about 126,000 visitors from the overseas and 1.6 million visitors from the
host country. From the 1896 when the Olympics games were established, they have emerged to
be a global phenomenon that represents a good culture of the international and local community
values over a longer period of time. Initially, the Olympic mega event was held with a key
objective of inspiring the youths through the pedagogic potential of Olympic games and as a
show of country’s patriotism and pride. In those days, the cultural perspective of mega Olympic
games evolved as symbolic historical occasion thus increasing the cultural values through
construction of the event as a global brand.

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The social-culture of London Olympic games 2012
Introduction
The idea of Olympic legacy is becoming completely established as the key to the movement of
Olympic which began in 2000. It’s becoming a contested social, economic, cultural and political
issue. This is because the Olympic games are regarded as the global most important events which
have recorded a significant impact in both rural and urban development. London Olympic games
conducted in 2012 have a big part to play in enhancing the appearance of physical and
landscapes within the city. Therefore, hosting the mega Olympic games event ensures the
refurbishment of development of new and existing infrastructures like the housing, parks,
transport and recreation centers. The other area that is highly impacted through the Olympic
mega event is Tourism sector. Tourism strategy established in the year 2012 was meant to
maximize the possible benefits associated with the Olympic games. Thus, the United Kingdom
tourism sector made all the efforts to ensure an important legacy for the future years was
achieved. Many management researchers focus on the financial benefits of Olympic games
although a number of researchers have mentioned cultural and social impacts of Olympic games
events. Therefore, the main objective of this piece is to look at the social-culture legacy that was
impacted by the mega Olympic games event in 2012.
The background information
Olympic games are considered as the international most important occasion and have recorded a
significant impact in urban development. They also play a key part in enhancing the appearance
of physical and landscapes within the city (Choi & Heo, 2013). Hosting the Olympic games
event ensures the refurbishment of new and existing infrastructures like the housing, parks,
transport and recreation centers. All these facilities end up becoming the legacies for the

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communities when games are over. Olympic games event is as well seen as large cultural
occasions with dramatic aspects, appealing to people and have a high global significance. This is
because they offer big opportunities in establishing respect and understanding various cultures,
values and tradition diversities. With no doubts, the event plays a key role in improving the
profile of nations hosting the event and making the communities of the host cities feel good (Luo
& Xue, 2013).
The Olympic stadium undergoing through major constructions to make it more
Better for the Mega Olympic games.
Source: Google images
In the year 2004 the IOC (International Olympic Committee) nominated London as one of the
cities that will be hosting the event in 2012 (Girginov, Masumoto & Homma, 2015). The
strategic and vision for London’s selection was guided by the various multi-agency groups
constituted by culture department, sports, media, the office of the government in London,
Transport department, and BOA (British Olympic Association). The transport group tabled a

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powerful issue associated with regeneration of socio-economic that was highly deprived in the
city of London. The bid of London to host the Olympic games event went through in the year
2005 July which led to development and publication of strategic policies. “The tourism strategy
for 2012 and beyond” was published in 2007 (Meng & Li, 2011). The strategy outlined a clear
plan that ensured a sustainable development to help the local communities through a number of
cultural events which were in line with 2012 Olympic games. The main objective of the tourism
strategy for 2012 and beyond was to maximize the possible Olympic games benefits to the
United Kingdom tourism sector and ensure an important legacy for the future years was
achieved. Many management researchers focus on the financial benefits of Olympic games
although a number of research has mentioned cultural and social impacts of Olympic games
events. In particular studies have on the economic growth impact, revenues, expenditure, profits
and regeneration of business activities. According to (De Burgh, Rong & Siming, 2012) the
significant contributions during Olympics games is a long term in regional and urban
development thus calling for more attention.
The main objective of this report is to analyze the contribution of the London Olympics 2012 on
cultural and social impact on the city and to whole community of London. The information
gathered concerning this event will be very useful guiding the London community on the
importance of embracing such idea. Results of this research will as well be critical to the
organizing committees and other key stakeholders and could have positive impact to their
relevant policies and strategies.
The cultural legacy
Since the establishment of Olympics games in 1896, they have emerged to be a global
phenomenon that represents the cultural values of the international community over of the time

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(Atkinson, Mourato, Szymanski, & Ozdemiroglu, 2008). Initially, the event was held with a key
objective of inspiring the youths via pedagogic potential of games and a national pride. In such
case, the cultural perspective of mega Olympic games evolved as symbolic historical occasion
thus increasing the cultural values through construction of the event as a global brand. The
cultural influence seen during the Olympic games is vital in integrating the culture to the
communities of the host nation. According to (Prayag et 2013) cultural impact can be described
as the consequences and effects of an occasion on possession and acquiring the knowledge that
enrich the minds of individuals. Such culture contributes greatly in improving the inter-cultural
sharing of information, sense of belonging, eliminating or reducing the level of illiteracy for the
local societies. Secondly, the mega events like Olympic games leads to the loss of distinction and
particularities aspects of tourist destinations. The cultural events during the Olympic games
occasion influences the international interests and plays great role in impacting the image of the
host city (Girginov & Hills, 2008). Its also gives a way in promoting the accessibility and
integration of various of cultural categories. Therefore, the Olympic games elevated London on
an international stage and all global media got an opportunity of transmitting the Olympic games
images worldwide. That means the individuals who plan for the games provides a special
opportunity in spreading various practices associated with sports to the other regions of the
world. The games organization team represent a unique privilege to promote the Olympic games
values and civic education to the host community of London along with other principles like
solidarity, participation, fair-play, tolerance and respect.
When compared to the past hosts of mega Olympic games, London was already set as creative
and cultural world leader. London did not prepare for Olympic games culture just like other
nations. Hence this highly contributed to the cultural impact on cultural programming in London.

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This impact was seen in the scale and diversity, creation New cultural jobs, distinct cultural
values, development of new partnership and the range of media to cover the culture events and
culture of tourism (Ritchie, B.W., Shipway, R. and Cleeve, B., 2009).
The image of the London city
Source: Google images
The development of new jobs
During the London 2012 Olympic games, many projects claimed that their new jobs were as
result of Olympic events. Most of these jobs were particularly on cultural practices like arts, film
work, costumes and graphic murals. The culture projects supported by the London Olympic are
expected to continue beyond the year 2012. For example, touring and festival cultural events.
The distinct values
During the Olympic events, a number of distinct cultural values emerged. For example, freedom
for the people of London city to take part in festivals like young individuals and children taking
part in producing artistic work, the disabled and deaf individuals were given opportunities to take
part in tourism events (Clark et al 2017).

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Emergence of the new partnership
The event encouraged the new partnership to get into creative industry which was which never
attempted in the past. The statistics taken during the London 2012 Olympic event showed that
there were 19% new cultural projects and out of the total new projects, 14% were as a result of
new partnership. On the other hand, individual partners came in supporting the development of
creative company.
The media coverage
Despite the slow process of acquiring the coverage opportunity in the previous years, the 2012
mega London Olympics was well accepted by the London media. The negative United Kingdom
critics were less during this event while the development of regional stories had a higher
percentage of positivity regarding the quality of the event. International and national media had a
good opportunity of covering the cultural event and the London 2012 festival most of BBC broad
casting hours. By the end of Olympic occasion, a number of London festival events were
highlighted as among the best across the forms of art.
The culture of tourism
The mega Olympic London 2012 played a key part in raising the profile of various venues and
places to international and United Kingdom visitors. It was estimated that the 2012 Olympics
held in London attracted about 126,000 visitors from the overseas and 1.6 million visitors from
the host country (Appendix 3). During the event period, the visits to the game show linked to the
Olympic games was significantly higher when compared to normal days visits. There was a
significance evidence of a sustainable development of tourism, venues and cultural festivals
which attracted various kind of visitors (Pappalepore & Duignan, 2016). The destinations like
National Portrait Gallery and British museum to boost their cultural profile during the London

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2012 Olympic games. The United Kingdom the general rating of their national brands hiked
which reflected a critical rise during the ratings of sporting, tourism and beauty excellence in the
country (Roche, M., 2017).
The tremendous impact witnessed after the Olympic games event therefore was able to meet the
“Tourism strategy for the 2012 and beyond.” This was a result of successful organization
programming of the above major cultural events along with the sporting activities (Taylor &
Stansfeld, 2017). The strategy was accomplished with respect to evidence of Sydney 2000
Olympic event which attracted about 30% more visitors to take part in cultural events (Roberts et
al 2018). It has as well been claimed that there is a big potential of generating more from tourism
if the host country is able to provide sponsorships and grants to local tourists during such event.
Although it’s very crucial to involve the local people other than the international tourist in giving
opportunities of celebrating the local culture and in empowering communities. That means the
public opinions should be given the first priority when strategizing the culture events aimed to
benefit the local society during the mega Olympic games.
The film encounters of Somali and Sudan refugees concerning their cultures as the result of 2012
London Olympic games

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Source: Google images
The social legacy of mega London Olympic games 2012
With respect to the communities in Europe, the social impact is described as the consequences or
effects of certain occasion of the lives of human beings, interaction and behaviors (Preuss.,
2015). The interactions incorporate the sharing of knowledge of international language, the
improvement of health destinations, raising the life expectancy of the communities and
establishing the new sport facilities (Appendix 1). The research conducted in the previous years
has shown that the Olympic games have long-term impact to the hosting cities and helps to
cultivate a sense of belonging to certain community(Zhou et al 2018). According to the positive
social impact like the excitement feelings, sense of belonging to a community, interactions
between the local people and the guests, national pride facilitate the viability of a given location
to develop into tourism destination. Thus, leading to increase of physical income (Fussey,
Coaffee & Hobbs, 2016).

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The contribution of 2012 Olympic games in Inspiring the young individuals
Source: Google images
The event was held at the lea valley part of London where it was expected to improve the
economic level of the area. This because this is one of the areas believed to be very poor and
more disadvantaged area thus the Olympic games event was able to offer employment, skill
training and education opportunities. Following the 2012 Olympic games event, the government
of United Kingdom invested a high percentage of their budget in training the youths and
established about 6000 community-based sport clubs (Pappous &Hayday, 2016). The education
department also allocated certain percentage of their budget in encouraging the efforts of
educators in organizing sports competitions a head of mega Olympics. The planning committees
of the 2012 London conducted an education programs entitled “Get set” which was operated for
four years in all parts of the United Kingdom schools and to about 6.5 million youths to assist
them understanding more about the 2012 London mega Olympics (Kenyon & Bodet, 2018). The
initiative was embraced by many schools where about 85% of the learning institutions in UK
signed in for the sports programs. Hence, the London 2012 Olympic games were able to inspire
more than 2000 projects which were designed with a main objective of educating the youths on
fitness, sports, arts, Olympic and health values (Giulianotti et al 2015).