International sports links and excellent training facilities are bringing more than a dozen nations to Bath for pre-Olympic training. But, it looks like the positive effects on the city are likely to be felt long after 2012.
As teams commit to train here, international TV crews are coming too. That means publicity for Bath, as viewers back home discover the city’s tourist attractions – bringing, it is hoped, an increase in the number of international visitors.
China Central TV (CCTV), which boasts an audience of 300m, has already been on location in the city visiting, among other places, the Fashion Museum where its team looked at the history of sports fashion – including the red, white and blue suit worn by gold medalist Amy Williams wore at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.
They also visited the University of Bath, where Amy trained, to interview director of sport Stephen Baddeley to find out how the 25-strong Chinese Olympic swimming team will be welcomed.
Another crew from a Shanghai arts channel with 1.6m viewers, mainly from the business community, plans to film the Roman Baths and other attractions next month.
Athletes from Great Britain, China, Russia, Malaysia, Ghana, Egypt and Barbados have already been confirmed as training at the university's sports training village to prepare for their events. This week, Iceland’s Olympic athletics team joined the list, together with athletes from the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Baddeley believes athletes are attracted by the fact that the city has some of the UK's best sports facilities on one site.
"It will be a veritable United Nations and it’s with great pride that we’ll welcome these teams to the University of Bath,” he said.
And he stressed: “We also continue to place a high priority on supporting the British athletes who train at the university.”
Bath Tourism Plus which arranged CCTV's visit alongside VisitBritain's Beijing office, is delighted by the interest shown in the city.
Chief executive Nick Brooks-Sykes said: “As we have set out an ambitious target to grow overseas tourism to Bath by 12% over the next three years and to raise our visitor income by £43m to £400m, we need to make sure that we are selling Bath at every opportunity.
“Global tourism is forecast to grow by 60% by 2020 and half of that growth will come from just four countries – China, Russia, India and Brazil. Therefore facilitating this visit will provide us with a great opportunity to raise our profile within this key market.”
Pictured: Gold space blanket jacket by Stella McCartney for Adidas – part of the Sport and Fashion exhibition at Bath Fashion Museum
