Concerns about safety, disappointment in the tourism industry, planned strikes or plague of rats. All these factors will affect the reception of the Paris Olympic Games, which can be remembered for a long time, but not due to the advanced level of sports competition or a large organization. A fewer days after they began, it can be concluded that a large part of the concerns had already been confirmed.
The week before the authoritative launch of the world's most crucial sports event was surely not her best commercial. planet media for respective days had been writing about group rape on a 25-year-old Australian tourist, attacked in the 18th territory of Paris, mainly known for Montmartre Hill. A woman, fleeing 7 men, was to take refuge in 1 of the local restaurants. Only 2 days later, on Monday, more Australians were killed by criminals. This time 2 journalists were attacked to study on the games they tried to bargain backpacks. Traditionally, even before the authoritative beginning ceremony, the football tournament began, during which the thieves were killed by representatives of Argentina.
Universal Crime
The situations described above are very akin to the situation in South Africa before the 2010 planet Football Championships. Fans and journalists coming to the tournament were warned about leaving hotels due to the fact that they could be assaulted at any time. akin warnings should have been issued by the French authorities, as crime has become an integral part of the scenery of Paris.
This should not be a peculiar surprise. Paris is surrounded by notorious suburbs dominated by immigrants and unequivocally associated with crime. Besides, you don't gotta go to places far from downtown to meet gang activity. The media has written repeatedly about groups of young people of Algerian or Moroccan origin stealing from tourists in the immediate vicinity of the Eiffel Tower. 2 years ago, police were able to break up 1 of the criminal organizations whose Algerian leaders paid drugs for the loot.
There is besides much talk about crime in the French capital. Early last year, the local police prefecture reported any affirmative trends, but immediately thereafter added that the number of violent robberies, burglaries, and home force had increased. Service says criminal behaviour is already a structural problem for the city above the Seine.
There could be an assassination.
The attention of the French safety forces focuses on very wide-ranging threats. surely the biggest concerns of tourists and the authorities themselves concern the anticipation of terrorist attacks. Paris has frequently witnessed them, and the largest of them was held just on the occasion of a sporting event, a football match between France and Germany. A full of 130 people and 7 terrorists were killed in the attacks at the time.
The bombings of 9 years ago were the work of the muslim State, at the time at the tallness of its popularity. Now besides a self-appointed caliphate is considered the top threat. His branch in Afghanistan besides called for attacks during the games erstwhile in March a terrorist group confessed to carrying out a massacre in a performance hall close Moscow. In addition, the advanced hazard of assassinations is linked to the war in Gaza that has been taking place since October last year. European services have seen increased jihadist activity since its inception, although for the time being they have mainly attacked alone.
This attack in the suburbs of the Russian capital was to origin large concern in France. The authorities in Paris decided to rise the terrorist alert to the highest possible level, and French president Emmanuel Macron began to talk about the request to cooperate with Russia in combating the terrorist threat. Even before this event for safety reasons, it was decided to reduce the number of participants in the beginning ceremony of the games, while 1 period after the Russian assassination Macron did not exclude the transfer of the inauguration back to the stadium. At this point it is worth recalling that the Olympic Games will begin for the first time in past outside the stadium, namely over the Seine. As announced by the authorities, 300 000 people will participate in the inauguration to observe about 6-7,000 athletes carrying barges across the river.
The challenges facing the service are big, so the question arises whether they are decently prepared for them. The law itself allowing for increased safety measures was adopted in a large hurry, which was met with considerable criticism due to the deficiency of public debate on it. The effectiveness of services beyond the introduction of many patrols and restrictions is intended to supply additional competences, including the anticipation of utilizing controversial algorithmic video surveillance (AVS) to track each individual's movement. Amnesty global believes that its application may be a step towards an even greater surveillance of citizens.
For now, the services have been able to check first and foremost the volunteers. A full of over a 1000 applications were rejected, mainly due to concerns about espionage. In addition, any individuals were to have a dangerous past, and under that word they should be understood mainly as belonging to Islamist organizations and far left and extremist right. Applications from persons previously convicted of crimes were besides rejected.
However, the assets of sabotage, which occurred mainly outside Paris, could not be stopped. On the day of the beginning of the games, the TGV high-speed railway was paralyzed and a telecommunications network was damaged in respective cities on the weekend. Home Minister Gérald Darmanin claims that the attacks are driven by activists of the far left, as is to be demonstrated by their precise preparation. 1 of the detainees in the case was even to have access to method premises in 1 of the branches of the French state railways.
Tourism does not number on profits
Every day, nearly 25,000 police and police officers will watch the streets of Paris. It is hard to tell precisely how many people will gotta watch. So far, nearly 8.7 million tickets have been sold for sporting events, while any disciplines can inactive buy tickets. However, media coverage shows that, in fact, the Olympic Games this year are not very interested, and it is surely little than erstwhile expectations.
It might seem that the world’s biggest sporting event will attract visitors from all over the globe. In fact, Air France began to estimation the losses associated with the low interest in their mergers in early July. The largest French carrier is expected to lose from €160 to up to €180 million due to a decrease in the number of reservations. Normally, from June to August, the interest in flights to Paris is highly high, but this time tourists were to avoid the French capital, fearing advanced prices, pistons and safety problems.
The hotel manufacture expects at most 50-55% of its facilities. Its representatives for small interest in the games blame excessive safety procedures. Especially, moving around the centre of Paris is expected to be importantly hampered by various types of barriers and controls, and even drinking coffee in any places will be possible only after giving the services the appropriate QR code. After the start of the event, the hotel manufacture has already begun to lower prices, as the number of tourists is even lower than expected. alternatively of 3 million people, Paris is likely to visit only half of this number.
The wide-ranging tourism sector so counts primarily on profits after the end of the most crucial sporting event. He believes that at the end of 2024 and early 2025 tourists would be more willing to visit Paris than before to benefit from fresh investments made for the games. In this way, the London situation would be repeated, which hosted the 2012 Olympic rivalry and besides sparked increased tourist interest after a fewer months of its completion.
In fact, we'll see in a fewer months. For now, the government is prepared to pay compensation to any entrepreneurs, mainly those active in "red zones" with increased safety requirements. The peculiar committee is to be inter-ministerial so that the calculation of losses is as precise as possible. This is what business organisations and trade unions demanded a fewer months ago.
Rats, water, immigrants...
One method of reducing possible problems was to get free of “uncomfortable” people from the streets of Paris. The socialist authorities of the city included both homeless and asylum seekers. Those who do not have their own roof over their head were transported mainly to temporary shelters, while immigrants transported to another French cities. NGOs have recognised the actions of Mr Anne Hidalgo as "social cleansing", which has besides been carried out over the past months in districts that are completely unrelated to the games.
In turn, Sekwana itself was thoroughly purified in connection with this ceremony of beginning sports competition. Over the years, the French capital’s authorities have been incapable to cope with the problem of river pollution, but it was yet to win and, according to measurements, to be suitable even for organizing sports competitions. Hidalgo, more than a week before the inauguration of the Olympic Games, jumped herself into the Seine and assured that triathlon competitions and a swimming marathon could take place. Only a week later, it turned out that, despite spending nearly EUR 1.5 billion, water was again polluted, so the organizers had to postpone competition in these disciplines.
The last days before the beginning ceremony, the Paris authorities spent in turn fighting... rats. The city is trying to master the problem of the increasing population of these rodents, so sports facilities and the Olympic village were carefully checked for their presence. Specialists hired by local authorities ordered thorough street cleaning, due to the fact that rats are to appear on the streets lured by leftover food. In total, it is simply a much wider problem that the socialist mer has not dealt with in many years. City services will so gotta accomplish advanced productivity so that those arriving at the games from all over the planet do not gotta watch overflowing dumpsters and the streets of garbage.
Many representations study that the organizers failed to handle the preparation of the Olympic village alone. Sportsmen complain mainly about tightness, sanitary conditions and cardboard beds. For some, long distances to sports facilities, to which besides tiny and unclimated buses drive, proved to be a problem. any of the players moved rapidly to hotels, and for example, Swedish handballs decided to buy mattresses at a close furniture store.
Will tourists witness street protests? The French authorities would surely want to avoid this, but this is improbable to be possible. Activists have already announced demonstrations against Israel's actions in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. For many months they campaigned to exclude Israelis from the Olympic Games. Nor are public sector workers excluded from the strike. They request peculiar wages for having to work hard in the mediate of the holiday.
Poor investment
Since the tourism manufacture is counting losses and waiting for state aid, and the full securing of the event with specified a large engagement of the services will be highly costly, is the organisation of the games economically profitable? A clear answer to this question would be negative. This would not be peculiarly new. Japan suffered twice as much costs as previously assumed 3 years ago. Of course, the Tokyo Games were delayed by a year and were held under conditions of exacerbations associated with the coronavirus pandemic, so they ran without the participation of fans.
The global Olympic Committee besides ordered the French authorities to draw up a calculation of the impact of the organisation of the games on the economical situation, including mainly on gross home product. It turned out that France's GDP would increase by just 0.01 percent thanks to the event. The profits will amount to nearly EUR 11 billion spread over seventeen consecutive years. This figure is at least light given that the country's yearly GDP is about EUR 3 trillion. In addition, investments do not drive the economy of France, as the country is able to organise specified a large event mainly utilizing existing infrastructure.
Perhaps the costs would have been even higher if Paris had not been the only candidate to organize the games. In specified cases, the ICCOL mitigates its demands on hosts, for example, who can mostly benefit from existing sports facilities. mostly thanks to this, a reasonably large profit in 1986 earned American Los Angeles. However, the privileged position of the ICC in specified situations is simply a different subject.
In fact, the French authorities seem to be looking at political and alternatively than economical benefits. In this respect, Macron's camp decided to take a very advanced risk. The list of problems with the organisation of the Olympic Games proved to be long adequate that it is hard to anticipate the event to run without any disruption. It is already possible to anticipate that it will be remembered mainly from the accompanying emergency safety measures and the acts of sabotage and serious organisational shortcomings.
