Olympic Games are not always profitable for host countries: Study

London, July 27 (ANI): Countries hosting the Olympic Games do so with the hope of boosting economic well-being, but are often left disappointed, a study has revealed.

According to the Olympic Studies Centre at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Games held in the Catalonian capital 20 years ago were a resounding and incomparable success, but it has not always been the case.

But the study recommends that before embarking on the costly effort of organizing the Olympics, each host city should evaluate their own goals and capacities in order to avoid failure.

This is the main conclusion of the report, in which the economic impact of the Olympics from Tokyo '64 to the present day was studied.

"The overall balance of celebrating the games tends to be positive. There are three obvious cases of failure: that of Montreal, due to financial causes, perhaps because all that investment was a little premature; that of Atlanta, because they tried to organise the games wit no urban impact, and in addition there was a terrorist attack; and Athens, where the organisation failed and the games bore little fruit", one of the CEO researchers, Ferran Brunet, said.

One of the causes of Barcelona's economic success was that the building work related to the event made up to only 9.1 percent of the total investment connected with the games.

"Such a small proportion can be explained by the huge amount of private investment which was triggered by the boost of the Olympics on the city", the CEO research indicates.

In fact, the Olympic investment and its economic impact in Barcelona are not comparable with any other host city of the Olympic Games.

Only Tokyo 1964 reached even half the investment impulse of Barcelona. In Seoul 1988 there was significant investment, but in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 it was very limited. Athens 2004 tried it and Beijing 2008 followed the Barcelona 1992 model with respect to deep urban and economic impact, as will Rio 2016.

In the case of London 2012 their objective is to improve their strategic position among the global regions.

"It is a city which is already 'made' and with respect to Europe it is the top region for the location of businesses from the 80s to the present. The relative impact of London 2012 will be lower than in Barcelona, but the games will have a large influence on the visibility of the city during the coming years and will have a huge effect, although to a large extent intangible, on improving its competitiveness", the researcher highlighted. (ANI)