A great number of visitors will be travelling to the UK to attend or be a part of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in London. While tourism in 2012 will increase due to the amount of people from around the world attending the games – BMI forecasts 35.08mn tourist arrivals in 2012 – arrivals are also forecast to increase following the events. The ‘legacy effect’ of the games, thanks to the media exposure and publicity associated with the Olympics (3.9bn people watched the games in Sydney in 2000) can last for up to a decade following the event. According to research by the national tourism agency VisitBritain, VisitLondon and Oxford Economics, in the post-games period of 2013-2017, a legacy effect of GBP1.27bn is forecast for the UK and of GBP0.88bn for London.