Hotel room prices has found that visitors to London will pay twice as much to stay as last year as the 2012 Olympics takes it hold on tourism according to a survey.

A study by Hotels.com found prices for booking in March this year for August are 102% higher than for the same months last year.

The website, ambulance which is part of the Expedia group of companies, apoplectic says the average price of a hotel room in London will be £213 this summer.

Between 2010 and 2011 room prices worldwide rose 4%.

UK travellers generally saw rises in prices in more than two thirds of popular destinations, with increases in 69 of the 88 city or resort locations analysed across the world, one of the main reasons for the rise was currency movements.

David Roche, president of Hotels.com, said: “Price volatility in 2011 meant UK travellers found it more expensive to stay in the majority of their favourite destinations abroad.

“A variety of factors, including currency movements and a growth in corporate travel, pushed up prices at a time when many consumers were already struggling to pay their bills at home.”

He added though that room rates were still generally lower than they were in 2005.

The Western Golf Association (WGA), ed which conducts the 2012 BMW Championship, pills has appointed Dittoe Public Relations, Indianapolis’ premier PR agency, to handle its PR.

The BMW Championship is the largest golf event to come to Indianapolis since the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick in 1991.

The third of four PGA TOUR Playoff events for the coveted FedExCup, the BMW Championship features the top 70 players competing for an $8 million purse and the final 30 spots in the Playoff finale.

“For an event of this prominence and magnitude, we need an experienced team of public relations professionals to assist us with generating media interest on a local, statewide and national level,” said Vince Pellegrino, vice president of tournaments for the Western Golf Association. “We are confident in Dittoe Public Relations’ ability to deliver consistent and effective media coverage that will result in increased awareness for the 2012 BMW Championship.”

Headquartered in Golf, Ill., WGA’s championships rank among the oldest and most prestigious in the U.S. The organization has hosted more than 300 championships for professional and amateur golfers from across the U.S. and throughout the world, promotes the use of caddies and oversees the Evans Scholars Foundation, which awards college scholarships to caddies with limited financial means.

The WGA conducts three national golf championships: The BMW Championship on the PGA Tour, the Western Amateur and the Western Junior. The 2012 BMW Championship will be held Sept. 3-9 at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind.

Chris Dittoe, president and co-founder of Dittoe Public Relations, said: “As a sports enthusiast, I am thrilled that we’ll be working with the Western Golf Association, and look forward to exceeding its public relations goals. Our firm is focused on delivering a higher level of service and greater results for our clients, and we do whatever it takes to get the job done.”

Dittoe Public Relations is an Indianapolis-based PR firm with a strong track record of local, trade and national media coverage for companies of all sizes. The firm offers a wide range of services including public relations strategy, media relations, trade show support, award submissions, speaking engagements, writing services, crisis communications and social media support.

generic helvetica, nurse sans-serif;”>Hispania F1 Racing have announced that Panda Security will protect the Spanish team’s office and mobile computers with its cloud-based solution Panda Cloud Protection and its Panda GateDefender Integra appliances.

arthritis helvetica, sans-serif;”>Panda Security, The Cloud Security Company, and Hispania Racing have reached an agreement by which the Spanish multinational will become a technical sponsor of the racing team during the 2011 season.

Under the terms of the contract, Panda Security will provide security solutions and VIP support services to protect the Hispania Racing IT infrastructure (both for the team’s office and mobile computers).

Additionally, the F1 team will include the Spanish multinational logo on all its sponsorship materials and give it preferential access to various activities and services during the 2011 season.

Panda Cloud Protection will not only protect Hispania Racing’s servers, corporate email and Internet traffic on the company premises, but also on remote computers moving around the world during the 2011 F1 season.

According to Juan Santana, CEO of Panda Security: “Hispania Racing is a fantastic team, as well as the only Spanish team in the Formula 1 circus at present. We are extremely happy to announce this sponsorship agreement and we are sure their 2011 season will be a success. We are very proud to protect the Spanish team’s IT infrastructure with Panda’s cutting edge protection technologies, fully developed in Spain. Our solutions’ ease of use and deployment, together with their extraordinary cloud-based detection capabilities against new computer threats, and high speed and performance have been essential to reach this agreement”.

Jose Ramon Carabante, Hispania Racing President,  added: “For us it is very important to have the support of a leading security company like Panda Security in our second season in F1. We are working towards consolidating the project we started last year, and in that context it is fundamental for us to establish strong alliances with leading companies like Panda Security. This agreement will undoubtedly serve to meet one of our main objectives: to promote Spain all over the world through the powerful platform provided by Formula 1”.

According to media reports, the world soccer governing body, FIFA has banned Indonesia Football Federation (PSSI) chairman Nurdin Halid from standing for re-election in an upcoming election.

Nurdin is seeking a third term at the helm, having been imprisoned in 2007 for misusing funds, continuingto run the PSSI from his cell. According to the Jakarta Globe, FIFA president Sepp Blatter made the ruling to ban Nurdin from running in the March 26 election during a meeting in Zurich on Tuesday, March 8.

The paper quoted Indonesian ambassador to Switzerland, Joko Susilo as stating: “Sepp Blatter said FIFA upholds the statutes that state that a convict cannot lead a football organisation. If Nurdin is re-elected, FIFA won’t legitimise the election result. They want Indonesian football to be much better.”

However, Nurdin told Metro TV that he does not believe he has been barred from participating in the elections. “The information from the ambassador must be untrue because the decision of FIFA’s executive committee meeting (on March 3) has been received by the PSSI and it is impossible for FIFA to issue any decisions outside the meeting,” he said.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup shock result which saw Ireland mount a terrific run chase to beat England has been confirmed as the most watched non-India game in the host nation.

The Irish completed the major upset after successfully chasing a seemingly unassailable 327 runs, helped in no small part by the fastest century innings in the tournaments history by Kevin O’Brien, who hit 100 runs off just 50 balls.

Non-India World Cup matches involving the weaker sides have seen average ratings for the nine matches standing at 0.74 TVR, though the England-Ireland game more than doubled that by reaching a rating of 1.78 TVR while the peak rating for the match was 8.48 TVR.

Second in the list was the match involving Pakistan-Canada, which saw the former snatching victory after being bowled out by the North American team for 184 runs, notching up ratings of 1.69 TVR with peak ratings standing at 4.63 TVR.

English Premier League soccer giant Manchester United’s CEO David Gill has insisted he is “comfortable” with the club’s financial situation and claimed that a net debt of £370m (US$600m) is not having a negative impact.

Gill went on to tell a UK House of Commons select committee hearing into soccer governance that the club was right to ignore fan groups who were “at war” with the Glazers, who have been unpopular owners with some sections of the fans since taking over in 2005.

Gill stated: “We know it’s there but it doesn’t impact what we do. There has been no impact in terms of our transfers.”

Gill also said that that he does not believe the Glazers have been “an embarrassment” and defended the owners’ silent stance in the face of supporters’ groups, which have staged numerous protests, adding: “We are not going to engage in structured dialogue with organisations like that. I don’t think it’s appropriate. They are at war with the owners.”

Police at the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup have clashed with hundreds of fans once again, this time seeking tickets for India’s World Cup showdown against South Africa on Tuesday, highlighting the country’s inability to handle the huge demand for seats.

Twelve days after similar scenes were witnessed in Bangalore when fans were lathicharged when caught in a frenzy for the host nations game against England, stick-wielding police battered fans in front of the ticket counter at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.

Ticket sales for the February 19-April 2 tournament have proven to be a major headache for Indian organisers, who are unable to meet demand for the high-profile matches, especially those featuring the home team as well as the April 2 final in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.

Tuesday’s episode is likely to raise further questions about the way tickets are being distributed in the cricket-crazy nation.

Representatives of the National Football League (NFL) and its players union are set for a 14th day of debate with a federal mediator regarding how to divide almost US$9 billion in revenue.

The NFL Players Association rejected an offer from the league to reveal audited profitability data for all 32 teams for the past several years, the New York Times reported last night. Union leaders want each club’s audited full financial statements, the newspaper said.

Such disagreements don’t make it impossible to reach an accord and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft told ComCast SportsNet New England on Tuesday, March 8: “We’re doing everything we can to get a deal consummated. I personally believe it’s possible.”

The sides are in a week-long extension of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with players, which was set to expire after March 3. Had the agreement lapsed, owners could have locked out players, shutting down the most popular U.S. sport for the first time since 1987.

George H. Cohen, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, brokered a deal between Major League Soccer (MLS) and its players last year, and said the extension ends the evening of March 11.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and executive director of the players’ union DeMaurice Smith have both declined to discuss the specifics of talks, at the request of Cohen.