Paris - the peoples choice for Olympics 2012

1 June 2005

PARIS Overwhelmingly the People’s Choice as 2012 Olympics Host City The majority of consumers in 38 countries give Paris the nod

Auckland, 1 June, 2005: While citizens in hopeful 2012 Olympic host cities London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris hold their breath in anticipation of a July 6th Olympic Committee decision, a large number of the world’s inhabitants have already made up their minds about which city they would prefer, and it’s Paris, according to the findings of a global study conducted by ACNielsen.

According to the ACNielsen survey conducted with Internet users in 38 countries, the majority of the world’s Internet population voted Paris as their No.1 choice of host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics. (See Charts 1a,b,c)

“The majority of respondents in 27 out of 38 markets surveyed chose Paris as their preferred host for the Olympic Games in 2012, followed by Madrid and London as their joint second,” said Alistair Watts, Managing Director, ACNielsen Pacific.

And as far as second choice was concerned, Paris remained the most popular location for the majority in 27 of the 38 countries.

The online study was conducted by ACNielsen among more than 21,261 Internet users in 38 markets worldwide in early May.

Across the world’s regions, Paris ranked No.1 in Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America.

Agreeing with the rest of the world’s first choice, 32 percent of New Zealanders voted Paris to be the host of the 2012 Olympic Games. London followed at 25 percent, whilst Madrid and Moscow both received 12 percent of the vote. New York came in as last choice with 10 percent.

The ACNielsen survey found that, quite naturally, patriotism and self-interest prevails when it comes to popular choice of host city.

Not surprisingly, 81 percent of French voted Paris, 57 percent of Spanish voted for Madrid, 85 percent of Russians voted for Moscow, 68 percent of the British voted for London, and 44 percent of Americans supported New York’s bid. (See Table 2)

“Our survey found that among the citizens of the contending countries, the Russians were the most eager to host the 2012 Olympics on their own soil, closely followed by the French. The least keen to see the games on their own turf were the Americans,” said Watts.

Globally, the biggest supporters for Paris were the Chinese (52%), who will hand the Olympic baton to the 2012 hosts, followed by the Belgians (48%), and Greeks (40%). Madrid was supported by the Portuguese (27%), Brazilians (25%) and Italians (23%). The Main supporters for London’s bid came from neighbouring Ireland (39%), and Commonwealth nations New Zealand (25%) and Australia (22%).

And if they can’t host it, who would be second best? For the Spanish and the British, second choice is nearby Paris. The French reciprocated, giving the nod to Madrid. The second choice for Americans was London, slightly ahead of Paris.

“The Olympic Games presents a tremendous economic and tourism opportunity for any host city and being selected is considered global affirmation that the country and its infrastructure are capable of putting on such an international event,” added Watts. “Not to mention the dollars that pour into the event in the way of advertising and sponsorship dollars.”

It’s worth noting that across all 38 countries, one in six respondents thought none of the five cities should host the 2012 Olympic host city. This was felt most strongly in Latin American where one in five thought the 2012 Summer Olympics should be held somewhere else. By country, nearly half of the Turkish and a quarter of Thais, Poles and Chileans felt the same.

The ACNielsen worldwide survey is a regular syndicated online consumer study, gathering information from regular users of the Internet around the world on their attitudes and preferences, consumption of media, products and services across different markets. ACNielsen spearheaded the establishment of access pools in the Asia Pacific region six years ago following the acquisition of www.consult.com.

ENDS

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