Senin, 11 Juni 2012

London Olympics 2012: Britons planning to arrange their holidays around the Games

London Olympics 2012: Britons planning to arrange their holidays around the Games

By Travelmail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 05:03 EST, 11 June 2012 | UPDATED: 05:03 EST, 11 June 2012

The opening ceremony is still well over a month away â€" but it seems that Britons are arranging their summer holidays around the upcoming Olympics.

According to a survey by British Airways, over 40 per cent of Britons have already juggled their getaway plans to fit in with the sporting extravaganza â€" with one in ten going so far as to cancel a foreign break to watch more of the action.

Summer holidays

Making plans: Around 40 per cent of Britons are juggling their summer holidays around the Olympics

A further 10 per cent say that they have held back from booking a holiday this summer in order to enjoy the track and field events from Stratford.

Support for the Games seems to vary according to region.

An impressive 89 per cent of those surveyed in Northern Ireland announced that they would alter their holiday plans to catch more of the Olympics.

But that figure dropped to 45 per cent when the question was put to people in the East Midlands, and fell again, to just 39 per cent, when put to Londoners (although the revelation that 61 per cent of capital residents will not put their summer on ice for July’s sporting festivities is presumably good news for British Airways).

The results of the poll also revealed something of a generational split in how Britons think they should take in the Games.

Some 43 per cent of young people (aged 18-24) surveyed declared that the best way to watch the Olympics would be to do so in person, in the stadium or velodrome.

But 50 per cent of Britons aged over 55 expect to show their support by absorbing the events via television.

Social anthropologist Kate Fox â€" author of Watching The English: The Hidden Rules Of English Behaviour â€" thinks the findings are a sign of latent patriotism.

‘We are normally a nation of “closet patriots”,’ she says.

‘We may feel proud to be British, but we don’t often make a big, gushy, flag-waving fuss about it â€" except over rare national moments like the Queen’s Jubilee and sport.

‘Big sporting events such as the London 2012 Games provide an antidote to our cynicism, providing us with an appropriate excuse to shed some of our inhibitions and be a bit more emotive.’

However, with less than 50 days to go before the Olympics begin, not everyone is feeling so positive about what lies ahead.

A bus strike, which could take place during the Games, is looming.

Last week, members of the Unite union â€" which represents bus drivers in the capital â€" voted to strike in a row over bonuses during the Olympics.

Diposting oleh di

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar

Langganan: Posting Komentar (Atom)