Now BoJo has had to apologise to London hoteliers for blaming them rather than Thomas Cook for jacking up room prices for the London Olympics.

The tourism disaster which is London 2012 is turning from a gale into a hurricane. Hotels, outraged by the price gouging being practised by LOCOG's partners Thomas Cook and CoSport, are withdrawing rooms from its preferential-rate scheme. A while back SCoeLtd blamed hotels for jacking up prices and threatening London's good name. However, hotels hit back accusing LOCOG and its partners of being behind the abominable inflation. At the heart of the matter is the undisclosed payment made by Thomas Cook and CoSport to LOCOG to become official resellers of these rooms. This kind of corruption lies at the heart of the Olympic system whereby a range of commercial organisations pay Organising Committees to gain monopolistic access to the Games. Price gouging was supposed to be outlawed at the 2012 Games. In reality it is central to the whole event.

The European Tour Operators Association gets it right again. After multiple attempts to warn the various Olympic hype merchants that there would be no tourism benefits from the London Olympics its predictions of an actual decline in tourism are coming true. Among those taken in by the hype are hotels which have been jacking up their prices in expectation of a visitor bonanza. This has only added to the developing disaster and brought BoJo out in hives as he warns of 'repercussions for years to come' if London gets it wrong.

This paper discusses the siting of the Summer Olympic Games at the global, national and local scales. The increasing corporatization of the Games is examined. Their use in city marketing campaigns is evaluated.

Already barred from Olympic traffic lanes Londoners and commuters are now being advised not to use the Tube during the 2012 Games. Instead they should walk or cycle to work to enable Olympic visitors to move around more easily. If possible they should just stay home!

Now it's Delhi's turn to discover that tourism does not prosper at mega events. Travel agents report cancellations of almost 50%.

Looking at some recent stories in the Indian news media about the construction of the Commonwealth Games facilities it is apparent that the 'same old same old' influences of privatisation, poor institutional oversight, greed, corruption and the brutal exploitation of the vulnerable poor labouring on the project have been clearly highlighted for some time.