DavidYuTestblog: March 2010

A great article by Paul Luke, The Province, on how the world sees Vancouver/Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympic games. Link.

It's way too early to say whether the Winter Games were an economic success.

It will be weeks before the short-term financial dividends will be known — and years before the long-term effects can be gauged.

But for now, tourism officials in Vancouver are basking in the generally positive coverage the city and the Games received from international media. And they predict that coverage can only help the city attract visitors.

"In business terms, it's like having the world's best product — in this case, the city of Vancouver — and being able to showcase that product to every major media outlet on the planet," Tourism Vancouver CEO Rick Antonson said Wednesday.

In the early days of the 2010 Olympics, Britain's Guardian newspaper whined that Vancouver had mounted the "worst Games ever."

Based on the acclaim showered on Vancouver from global media, that remark could prove to be among the dumbest in Olympics history.

Here's a selection of the praise bestowed on the city, the Games and Canadians from around the world, courtesy of Tourism Vancouver:

ON VANCOUVER

"You may have heard that Vancouver is a great city, but it's better than that. On a good weather day — and we had a spectacular five-day run in the middle of the Games — it is stunningly beautiful, and it is an excellent eating, drinking and shopping city."
— The Boston Globe

"Vancouver looked gorgeous on TV ... NBC's shots of Vancouver's downtown and waterfront, and aerial views of Whistler ski areas, provided a media boost no marketing campaign could have delivered."
— The Seattle Times

"Vancouver is a city unlike any other. Wherever I look, I see water or mountains — or both. And everyone looks so healthy."
— The Daily Telegraph

[Visitors] will find the streets of Vancouver, a city of two million, so spotless they'll think Mr. Clean is the mayor."
— The Miami Herald

ON THE GAMES

"And overall, for athletes, fans, the media and the host nation especially, the Games were a triumph."
— The Independent

" . . . you can't stage a better Olympics."
— Yahoo.com

"I think it's always obvious at the end of any of these global spectacles whether a particular event was a success, or fell short of the mark. I have no doubt that history will recall these Olympic Winter Games falling into the former category."
— The Daily Mail

ON THE FRIENDLINESS OF CANADIANS

"Why can't we be more like Canada? They host the Olympics like they mean it. They smile ... and they have the Canadian Mounties. But most of all what they have is a kick-ass national anthem, a tune that says everything about who they are — and about what we, as Americans, are not."
— The Huffington Post

"The Olympics went into overtime Sunday. It was perfect. No one wanted the Warmest Games to end. Warmest weather. Warmest hosts."
— The Miami Herald

"Before the closing ceremony begins, let me just take the time to thank the people of Vancouver for a wonderful 19 days. The people here couldn't be nicer, from the volunteers who make sure the buses run on time, to the citizens walking the streets, to the athletes and people from around the world who were here."
— The Los Angeles Times

ON CANADIAN PATRIOTISM

"Canadians used to think of themselves as being quiet, modest and unassertive. No longer. After their athletes topped the medals table with 14 golds at the Winter Olympic games, some 100,000 flag-waving locals took to the streets of Vancouver and the nearby ski resort of Whistler, deliriously singing the national anthem."
— The Economist

"The bright-eyed exuberance can be a little overwhelming to someone who has spent many years absorbing cynicism in the Middle East, but the sheer earnestness helps temper what could elsewhere be an aggressive nationalism. Instead, it seems a pure expression of civic boosterism, no more, no less."
— The Jerusalem Post

"This quiet city with such beautiful scenery made all of Canada proud."
— The Houston Chronicle