London 2012 Olympic Games & Paralympics: overseas visits, by age and gender

This statistic presents the total number of visits by international tourists to the United Kingdom (UK) for the London Olympic Games and Paralympics in 2012, by age and gender. In total, around 471,000 trips were made to the UK with the main purpose of going to the Olympic or Paralympic events. Of these, 81,000 visits were made by males aged between 35 and 44. In comparison only 28,000 visits were made by females in the same age group. A higher number of 25 to 34 year old females visited the Games from overseas.

Male visitors also tended to be higher than females among 45 to 54 year olds. This is also reflected in international tourist spending on the London Olympics, with males between the ages of 25 and 64 spending significantly more on visits for the Games than females of the same age.

The Summer Olympic Games are a major international multi-sport event, held every four years in different city destinations worldwide. The Paralympic Games usually take place after the main Summer Olympic events, involving athletes with various disabilities. In 2012, London hosted the Olympic Games for the third time, with a total budget of 11.3 billion British pounds (or 17.7 billion U.S dollars).

The main international visitors to arrive in the UK for the London Olympics came from France, the Netherlands and Germany. Visitors from the United States also made up a large proportion of visitors.