The Olympics brought less tourist money to recession-hit Britain than officials promised, a trade group said today.
A majority of UK businesses reported losses from last year.
A survey of over 250 tour operators, hoteliers and visitor attractions found that tourist traffic fell all over Britain, not just London.
This is according to UKinbound, a leading trade association representing British tour operators said.
The survey said 88% of British tourism-oriented businesses reported some losses during the games compared to the same period last year. Officials are still tallying up the total number of tourists who came to - or avoided - London this summer.
The capital normally sees about 1.5 million tourists on average in August, but UKinbound and other trade groups say a significant number have chosen to steer clear of London, and even the rest of Britain because they thought it would be too busy.
The official visitor figures will not be available until September.
Tourism officials say that international Olympics visitors to London, including athletes, officials and tourists, totalled about 300,000.
Domestic spectators from Britain made up the majority of people visiting games venues.
Restaurants and shops have complained that these games visitors did not spend as much money on food and shopping as typical summer tourists.
"The people who came to the games really didn't do very much sightseeing, didn't do very much shopping, didn't do very much eating out," said Miles Quest, a spokesman for the British Hospitality Association.
London's hotels have hit about 80% occupancy, not more than typical August rates, Quest added.
Visa, the only credit card accepted at the Olympics, reported that international visitors to Britain spent more than £450m sterling on their cards during the first week of the games, up by 8% on the same time last year.
Around £12.7m were spent on Visa cards in London restaurants last week, an increase of almost 20% on a year ago.
Olympic exodus causes uptick in flight numbers
The European air traffic agency says the exodus of thousands of athletes, spectators, journalists and others from the Olympics is causing only a slight uptick in the number of flights across the continent.
Kenneth Thomas, head of operational support at Eurocontrol, said that's traffic was expected to jump by only by a few hundred flight over the 29,360 a week ago.
Flights from London's airports - Heathrow, Stansted, Luton, Biggin Hill and Farnborough - were expected to carry 30% more passengers today, he said.
Still, the mass getaway will not impact the overall number of flights because passenger departures will be spread over a number of days.
The record in commercial and general aviation flights in Europe was set in June, 2008, with 34,476 flights.
