Hoteliers see 'fantastic opportunity'

London's hosting the Olympics in 2012 will be "the next best thing to hosting them ourselves", according to the Irish Hotels Federation.

John Power, chief executive of the Federation, said the Games offered a "fantastic opportunity" to market Ireland as a prime destination, "from the whole point of view of the Olympic athletes and their entourages coming here in the run-up to the Games, to acclimatise and prepare".

He said he hoped sports facilities would be upgraded to Olympics standard to encourage athletes to train here before travelling on to Britain.

"I also certainly see a lot of possibilities to market Ireland as a place to visit, to people attending the Games as spectators - particularly people coming from long-haul areas."

Such people would see Ireland and Britain as part of the same region, he said, and the increasing ease of access, with cheap flights between the two countries made marketing Ireland in this way easier.

Tourism Ireland, which markets Ireland abroad, plans to "leverage every benefit" from the 2012 Olympics.

Simon Gregory, director of Britain with Tourism Ireland, said the organisation was "absolutely delighted" with the news of London's success.

"We have not begun specific planning yet, but we can see this offers huge opportunities," he said.

"We already co-operate with Visit Britain (the British tourism marketing body) on numerous projects around the world and we will be on this."

He, too, said improvements to Irish sporting facilities would enable more aggressive marketing of the country as a place for athletes and their teams to prepare and acclimatise in advance of the Olympics.

The Minister for Tourism and Sport, John O'Donoghue, said the awarding of the Olympics to London represented an "excellent marketing opportunity" for Tourism Ireland to market Ireland as a holiday destination.

"I know we will be looking to encourage many of the tens of thousands of spectators and competitors to extend their stay in this part of the world and visit some of Ireland as part of their itinerary," he said.