London’s Burning: International Reaction to the August Riot and its Potential Impact to Tourism

Whilst the dust finally settles on areas affected by the recent riots, the country still takes stock on what was one of the greatest civil disturbances in many years. The political fallout may be taking centre stage at the moment; however, it is the likely that the economic effects will have a far more tangible effect on people’s lives, not just in the short term, but in the long term too. The long term ramifications of the riots on Britain’s international image will undoubtedly have a great impact on Britain’s tourist industry, especially those centred in London which is of particular importance due to the 2012 Olympics. In times of economic hardship it is most likely that the recent riots will make the situation worse for many businesses that are directly and indirectly reliant on foreign tourists and investors. As pointed out in a previous blog post on Chinese tourism, foreign tourists from a wide variety of destinations are increasingly important to the British tourist industry, therefore what the riots did to London’s intentional reputation is a vital matter to understand.

Understanding, how the riots were digested abroad will allow us to gain a glimpse of what tourists now think about Britain’s capital city. One of the most striking things about the riots was the great wealth of images that it produced, from those of burning cars and shops to masked looters, and police inactivity in the face of wanton violence. In our modern media age we cannot underestimate the power of these images had on the global tourist community. London’s image as a safe, modern capital has been tarnished by the images of gangs looting and mugging at will, especially the terrible scenes of Asyraf Haziq being robbed by people supposedly offering him help. These scenes will have undoubtedly created a negative image of London worldwide, but especially in South-East Asia, which is an increasingly important economic region and therefore a future tourist generator.

Furthermore, if the images of the riots didn’t do enough harm the reaction to them in the world press and by many governments have cast further doubt over London’s security. The Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda painted a picture of London as boiling cauldron of seething ethnic tension, whilst the Brazilian television network Globo and the Chinese newspaper Renmin Ribao questioned London’s ability to deal with security during the Olympics. The USA, Austria, France, Germany, Malaysia and others all urged their citizens to be cautious in London and other affected areas, adding to Der Speigel’s comment that London looked more like Mogadishu than the modern financial centre people are so accustomed to.

Like the healing process, a true assessment of the economic impact of the UK riots on London’s hospitality and retail sectors will take a long time. Savills, the international real-estate advisor has said that the riots will not have an effect at all on property prices, which as so reliant on foreign money. However, any judgement is premature at the present stage, currently with the riots over are tourists and investors willing to risk missing out on some of the opportunities London has to offer. Nevertheless, London has deep wounds to heal and it almost certainly could not take another bout of bad publicity. With a host of European and world cities vying for the same money from the international elite, it has yet to be seen whether London will feel further effects from the riots.
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