The Olympian Effort: How will the Olympics benefit Britain?

The competition to host the Olympic Games is always intense, with countries preparing their bids for years in advance. There are so many things that come with playing host, mainly the prestige to begin with. There is also the huge investment that gets immediately earmarked for infrastructure development and the opportunity to raise sponsorship money.

This episode of CNBC-TV18's special show The Olympian Effort finds how much of a fillip these games will be for London and Britain. After a quite introspective start, London caught the Olympic fever, with large crowds on the streets celebrating the final countdown to the opening ceremony. The London 2012 games showcased Britain to the world through August and September, giving the host nation a chance to attract visitors and business. According to Britain's Office of National Statistics, GDP shrank by 0.7% in the second quarter, making it the third consecutive quarter of contraction. The grim economic climate has made the London Olympics even more valuable, with optimists believing that it will boost business and spirit in an economy that's worse for wear. Besides the immediate benefits of business contracts and jobs, they say the Olympics are an investment that will pay long after the games are done. Laurence Bresh, Marketing Director, Visit Britain: For us it's very much about marketing the destination right in the Olympic games themselves. That job will be done by the organizing committee. Our job is to make sure that we make the most of the fact that the spotlights of the world is going to be on Britain. Leading the UK's business initiatives is the UK Trade and Investment Agency's Olympic Legacy Unit. The centrepiece of their effort, a series of 17 global business summits that are being held in London alongside the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Allan Collins, MD - Olympics Legacy: As a result of our interactions that encourage during the Olympics we set ourselves a challenging target of 1 billion pounds. As well as what's going on at Lancaster House there will be a regional program on the country places like Weymouth, Glasgow will be having their own programs that parallel that was going on in London, because the Olympics is about the whole of the UK as well as about London and overseas all our embassies and high commissions will be running their own events. They will be taking live streaming of the full leadership presentation from Lancaster House and we hope by those means to interact with many thousand companies during the course of the Olympics.