The one thing people ignore

The one thing people ignore is that with thousands of airliners in the Earth's skies, polluting the air, waters and contributing to climate change, tourism has become one of the major ecological disaster areas.

From the monetary point, Expo 86 went on for 6 summer months and was a major disaster for the Interior, with businesses losing big and going broke, because nobody came and the locals went to Vancouver. It cost us $5,000 loss of income, although we haven't been near the bloody place.

So, what can these clever people really expect from 2 weeks of frenzied activities in the middle of winter ? In short, they're full of it.....

Nobody knows nothing and the people of BC will be paying through the nose for this showbiz extravaganza for many years to come, with governments and economist desperately trying to cover up the real costs.

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

Alice in Wonderland

Let's just think about this:

"At the bottom, based on low tourist visits and without the convention centre, was a $2 billion projection. The current total cost of the games is estimated at $7 billion."

We spend $7 billion, and we get $2 billion back in tourism. And think of what BC could have done with that $7 billion. Health, eduction, alleviating poverty, protecting wild salmon.

But no, the Five Ring circus must go on. Don't bother us with details.

Insane.

No matter what the "experts"

No matter what the "experts" have to say, this family won't be showing up. Why might that be? A ferry ride over from the town of Victoria, at least two places to stay for free but we won't be going. The impact on our two family memebers living in Vancouver will be huge. One still hasn't figured how he will get to work nights, due to road closures, and he doesn't drive. And taking holidays will not be allowed. The other will be excluded as most of his work is in False Creek. Other than that, we find it disgusting that Gordo and crew has stripped funding from so many associations that help the sick, the poor, disabled. Hopefully the international press will ask pointed questions of the street clearing of the homeless and of course this province holding the record for the lowest minimum wage and the worst child poverty in the country. No money for all those items but all the money they want, to spend on a 14 day circus. BC has sold it's soul for some possible copany profets in the future, that only some other"experts dream may occur. A pox on their houses

if you wanted to promote tourism....

...all the billions spent could have been better used to attract tourists all over BC. You could have cut hotel/motel costs by 30% and the people would have flocked to BC and all over the province not just to Vancouver and Whistler. You would have saved the security costs as well. More people would have benefited. Oh no, the money had to go to the friends of Liberals.

Do you want some cheese with that whine?

The only negative thing I have to say about the Olympics is I was unable to purchace more tickects on the weekend. The Olympics have put thousands of dollars in my pocket through all the work I've received and, just like Expo 86, we won't see the HUGE benefits until after it's over and the tourists start to flock in and we get to enjoy the world class infrastructure ourselves.

Everyone is an expert

when the unknown is compared with the obscure. Why? Because there are no wrong answers. Up can be down and down can be up, depending on your own point of view.

The Olympic movement depends on myths, not facts or authentic traditions. But we can find clues in former host cities. It's not upbeat for all but it's definitely a lucrative party for some.

http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2009/11/searching-for-gravy-train.html

Olympic effect on BC

ALL SUMMED UP> "owe`lympics"! Vancouver and area get the grease while the rest of us get the shaft. A $7Billion shaft that the next 4 generations will pay for.

Owelympics are just a money grab by the 'corp.`s that are spending the $7B. If the owelympics were truly about athletes, or even nationalism, then we could send all athletes to prebuilt facilities around the world -- of course that would generate no revenue for the 'backroom boys', so the scam goes on.

Big business, all wrapped up in 'new world order' uses athletes to continue flim flam scam - are athletes that stupid or just caught up in the rampant attitude of 'all for one and all for me'.

See this link... ...What? A recession? People not travelling?

Consumers to keep 2010 travel budget tight: survey
More than 40 percent of consumers plan to travel less in 2010

http://www.canada.com/life/Consumers+keep+2010+travel+budget+tight+survey/2228084/story.html

This coment always makes me chuckle.

we won't see the HUGE benefits until after it's over and the tourists start to flock in and we get to enjoy the world class infrastructure ourselves."

I can't believe there are still people who fall for this con.

Capital budget yes, operating budget no!

Skywalker, are you referring to the infrastructure for which there will be no budgets to operate once the show is over? Too bad the big guys make their money on the construction, not the operations.

We already have recreational facilities that close many hours each week because full operations are not affordable.

Why do the experts always

Why do the experts always say that we will only have upsides. THe HST , the OW -lympics , PPP's and IPP's when the only ones who benefit are the wealthy and big companies. The ordinary Islander will not benefit. Viva the province of Vancouver Island.

DPL

Don't forget the $100 million contract to a Quebec company to put a removable roof on BC Place Stadium. To me, that is offensive.

I believe that contract is

I believe that contract is for almost $500. million.

Ed Deak.

I read somewhere that it's

I read somewhere that it's closer to 575 millions and don't be surprised if it goes higher. It rains a lot in Vancouver so maybe they should have saved a bunch of taxpayers money by just repairing the one they have now.And if they used BC workers a lot of the money would have come back in taxes and dollars spent locally. But that's not Gordo's way of greasing the wheels

Well duh....

"There have been people here doing security preparation for the games as well as those working on the technical aspects of various venues. Neither show up in the official tourism statistics the PwC researchers relied upon, Tretheway said." Well duh. Those people are NOT tourists, they're workers. And most of them are from out of province. And isn't it lucky for Gordo and gang that the H1N1 showed up when it did so they have something to blame for the lack of economic benefit of the Owelympics?

tourism?

If anything tourists are turning away from BC because from all indication I've seen, the BC government is not interested in tourism. Mayhaps speculative real estate, drug dealing, the promotion of drunk driving, raiding the public coffers, destroying the environment, but not tourism. I met tourists who were looking for the "big trees" and they told me the only big trees they found were going down the highway on a logging truck.

The only effect on Tourism will be people from BC fleeing the circus for warmer climes.

Doubling tourism by 2015

I've seen this reference to a BC Liberal policy of doubling tourism by 2015. In that push, we seem to be abandoning the Supernatural BC theme. In reality, the Europeans come here because there is wild land and close-to untouched nature. Getting the Harper government to exempt BC from the Navigable Water Protection Act seems like part of a plan to develop more resorts and despoil the wildness of even more lakes and rivers (and for the latter, there is run-of-river power to downgrade our small rivers further).

I see lots of wonderful Aboriginal art at the airport (YVR) and the new convention centre, but beyond the Anthropology Museum at UBC, the new Bill Reid Gallery, and the occasional Vancouver Art Gallery show, it's not a big focus of our culture. This campaign seems disconnected with the cultural reality of Vancouver, which is mostly Western European.

The security bill and economic stimulus

The bill for Olympic security is predicted to be almost $1 billion. Presumably, the bulk of that is salaries. There is no economic multiplier effect unless these people are going out and spending their money. I suspect many of these people will be too busy to spend that money.

dave49.. any more info on the Navigable Water Protection Act

I have heard nothing about this myself.

That is front page news stuff.

Skywalker

That is why the Olympics have been entirely funded through private investment. The business plan put forward was so irresistible in guaranteeing long-term profits, that some of the notables in BC such as Jimmy Pattison immediately rushed to invest.

And then I woke up................

I guess

I guess that they should also have counted those workers that came from overseas to work on the Golden Ears Bridge and the Canada Line as well as all the Mexicans that come to pick the crops each year. With all these extra "Tourists" one must conclude that the businesses that make their through tourism must be misleading the public. InterVISTAS Consultants sound as believable as Colin Hansen extolling the virtues of the HST.

What a joke.

Of course the winter games will have a financial impact on BC...

The province (and the taxpayers) will be paying for it for the next few generations!

In Quebec, it took them the better part of 3 decades to clear up the debt. I wonder how long it will take BC to do the same.