INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

eports and 12 pictures) personally concerned the President of the
Organizing Committee Athens 2004 (Demertzis 2003).
Negative press publications and critical comments by the
electronic media increased instead of dropping since the beginning of
2004; criticisms focused on the delays and on the projects that would
remain unfinished (e.g. the renovation of the National Archaeological
Museum) or would not be built. Press reports harped monotonously on
the question of whether Athens would finally be ready to host the
Games. These continuing negative reports are a most important
parameter for the image of Olympic cities, especially when the host
city belongs to a small country that does not have a powerful
international lobby, as a result of which all the efforts for organizing
the Games and improving the city are, to a large extent, not
recognized.
This situation, combined with a number of international events
(terrorist acts and others) discourage people who might have been
interested in visiting Greece for the Olympics. Let me mention,
indicatively, that in March 2004 the occupancy rate of hotels in the
Athens region, was 30% lower than the rate for Sydney hotels for that
same period four years ago.
Conclusions
Summarizing, I wish to point out that the planning and
implementation of the campaign for the promotion of an Olympic city
had become, in this era of globalization and image predominance
(television) just as important as the building of the necessary sports
and other facilities. Although formally recognizing this priority,
Greece has not tried hard enough to respond to this challenge. From a
communication aspect, the city of Athens has been practically
invisible in the last four year of its preparation for the Games. Its
promotion efforts have been uncoordinated, insufficient,
circumstantial, contradictory and, most important, without a proper
strategic plan that would lay down a timetable for achieving individual
targets, that would give the campaign the necessary cohesion, and
momentum and enhance the different facets of the city.
Much has been said about this weakness. One of its causes may
well be the lack of experience in organizing such major events and in
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