London wonders what happened to all the tourists

Unless you are going to an Olympic event, there is every reason to postpone your visit to London. Hotels haven't helped by hiking their prices opportunistically. And with up to 24 free HDTV channels of Olympic sport to watch, I know where I'm going to be all next week.

Tourists came to support their national teams at first, and enjoy holidays at second. But their earnings are depended on their national economies. That is a budget of air ticket, hotels and minimum expenditure

The 'tourists' from across the channel were detained by the European economic crisis - that's what happened to them.

I blame it on hotels. You have to sleep somewhere, and news that you would spend three times the normal price for one night scared a lot of potential tourists.

It was a problem during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics as well. It's also one reason why some of Europe's better known ski resorts such as St. Moritz aren't interested in hosting the Olympics again. Why mess up a well-tuned money-making machine?