ABSTRACT

Mega-events are defined by Getz (2007:25) as those events which, due to their size or significance, can produce ‘extraordinarily high levels of tourism, media coverage, prestige, or economic impact for the host community, venue or organization’. Even prior to the 2012 Games, London was already a world-renowned centre for arts, entertainment and sporting events such as London Fashion Week, London International Film Festival, several top-draw sports facilities and Notting Hill street carnival – now Europe’s largest street festival with attendance of approximately 1.4 million over 2 days (Greater London Authority, 2012). London’s O2 Arena is the busiest popular music venue in the world (Pollstar, 2014), and venues such as the ExCeL in East London and Kensington Olympia in West London regularly host trade exhibitions with global reach. It is against the backdrop of this dynamic and increasingly valuable emerging ‘experience economy’ (Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Sundbo, 2004) within the ‘spectacular urban space’ (Hall, 2006) that this chapter considers the impact of the world’s pre-eminent mega-event – the Olympic Games – and the impact of the London 2012 Olympic Games on small local business.