Two consortiums that won the tender to rent 3000 private homes during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games, have failed to deliver, according to Yiannis Evangelou, the chairman of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies.
An Australian publication reports that the Athens Olympic Organising Committee launched a plan seven months ago to secure rooms in private homes. But Evangelou said, “Athens organizers couldn’t even co-ordinate each other”.
Neither consortium – Alpha Filoxenia and Elliniki Filoxenia – signed contracts with the Athens Organizing Committee after being asked to submit letters of credit worth $1 million each to Games officials.
They also had to pay a further $860,000 for the right to use Olympic symbols and paperwork.
Athens 2004 was then to provide the consortiums with access to prized Olympic contract databases, plus the option of providing potential tenants with the right to buy Games tickets.
But everything collapsed when Alpha and Elliniki refused to sign contracts unless non-affiliated operators were also forced to pay participation fees.
Meanwhile Athens 2004 officials are still encouraging prospective overseas tenants to contact either consortium, but is seemingly unaware the companies have formed a single company and plan to operate independently of the Athens Organising Committee, reports the newspaper.
Yiannis Revithis, chairman of the Athens Realtors association, claimed any deal struck with operators up to now were worthless.
He said his organization would launch its own scheme next month.
He added that rentals would be $70-225 per night, but Evangelou said the price would be $205-310.
Meanwhile Athens 2004 is still having problems recruiting volunteers and has trimmed their target of 150,000 applicant down to 120,000. By August officials said they had received 93,000 applications.
They have turned to diaspora Greeks, who make up more than 11 per cent of applicants, both to boost numbers and add experience, reports Reuters.
And Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said he cannot guarantee there will be 100 per cent security at the Athens Games. “No one can, but I can say that every effort has been made, everything that is humanly possible has been done – a budget upwards of $600 million, 45,000 security personnel and ongoing cooperation between the security services of over 60 countries”.
But Rogge said he has no doubts about Athens being ready for the Games.
Rogge identified three key issues that London will need to address if it wins the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
He believes that London faces similar difficulties to those being tackled by Athens.
He added, “London will have to focus on the same fundamentals as Athens – venue construction; transportation, which is not an easy thing to do in a big city because you add approximately 11 million trips to an already congested city; and sporting quality, that is the officials, the judges”.
