Olympics & Tourism, Google & Travel

This evening The University of Bedfordshire put on a Networking Event to hear from Victor Le Grand on the effects on Tourism from The London Olympics and Nigel Huddleston now at Google Travel, on measuring and understanding  the effects of searches upon the Travel Industry. Both talks were interesting and enlightening, however, I would like to have seen the opportunity of questions after each individual speaker rather than jointly at the end, as it is then still fresh in delegates’ minds, and would encourage more questions.

Once again, meeting afterwards for drinks and snacks allowed for further discussions and as always the standard of the refreshments was excellent, and the acoustics and lighting makes for easy conversation and provides me with the opportunity to capture some of the interaction without resort to disruptive electronic flash, only very occasionally was it noticed that I was photographing, and I think in the shots I have within the gallery, that I have captured a fair sample of what transpired.

I both put a question and raised the point that sadly Luton missed a golden opportunity to obtain funding from central government to make the most of what it could offer London in terms of accommodation for visitors to the 2012 Olympics, and vastly improve access to the M1 by separating the two traffic streams at the Spur Road roundabout so that there was uninterrupted access to the Airport, the Station, the retail area and onward travel to Hitchin, by ensuring the M1 Spur Road traffic is not interrupted by the roundabout with its local traffic. The Olympics provided the rare opportunity to gain Central Government funding for a major improvement to local infrastructure so that Luton could promote all the extra hotel space that London will need, and subsequently benefit from the massive improvement in traffic flow for its industries to be able to expand.