Olympic Tourism Winners? Portugal and Spain

Richard Wellings is one of thousands of Londoners who skipped seeing Great Britain’s athletes snaffle a record 65 medals at the London Olympics. “I wanted to escape the inconvenience,” says Wellings, 39, a deputy editorial editor at the Institute of Economic Affairs who lives in Stratford, the East London home of the Olympic Park and the epicenter of the games.

Britons fled overseas while athletes swam, jumped, and raced at the nation’s most successful games (as measured by medals won) in more than a century. Their temporary flight helped fill hotel rooms left empty by austerity-hobbled local tourists at Porto Bay Falésia Resort, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean near Albufeira in Portugal. “There was much less demand from Portuguese tourists, so this was a good opportunity,’’ says Eugenio Yanov, assistant front manager at the resort. British guests increased by about 10 percent for the duration of the two-week Olympics, he says.