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Tourist Watch

AFKABartram
AFKABartram Posts: 57,877
in General Charlton

Been noticeable over the last 2-3 seasons the continuous increase in overseas tourists taking in weekend games on trips to London.

So thought good to have a thread where we comment on our interactions with visitors.

Had 3 Italian AC Milan’s from Venice next to me on Saturday. They loved the trip and were still going strong in the Oak about 8pm!

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Comments

  • Bedsaddick
    Bedsaddick Posts: 24,774
    edited October 21
    Definitely noticed it this season . You can tell them a mile away with their brand new scarfs . There was a group of German supporters from Düsseldorf behind me in the Curbs stand on Saturday and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. 
    I think it’s a great thing . 
  • SporadicAddick
    SporadicAddick Posts: 6,900
    Roma fan stood next to me in Upper Covered end against Leicester.

    Indulged me as I showed him pictures of the old East Terrace and winced as I showed him pictures of Di Canio.. 
  • Baldybonce
    Baldybonce Posts: 9,669
    A bunch in the west last saturday all wearing the same shirt but i couldn't make what it was .
  • Pedro45
    Pedro45 Posts: 5,837
    We had four French guys sitting next to us on Saturday, and three German the previous game. Middle blocks of lower west are full of tourists recently!
  • CAFCTrev
    CAFCTrev Posts: 6,002
    edited October 21

    As Bedsaddick said, you can spot them a mile off — they always seem to raid the club shop before kick-off and end up in matching scarves. There were loads of them in the Curbs Stand on Saturday; I was sat next to a German chap and his daughter for the game.

    I reckon there were a few more tourists than usual for the Wendy’s match, probably down to the NFL crowd in town. We started seeing handfuls of them throughout 2024/25, but it really ramped up in the final couple of home games last season and seems to have carried on — and even grown — this season. I feel like it must add at least several hundred to the attendance, and possibly more. Great to see!

  • _MrDick
    _MrDick Posts: 13,120
    It’s funny this thread should pop up .. I’m literally on a Piccadilly line train heading towards Heathrow and I’m casually looking at the photos of a lady sitting next to me. She’s flicking through them on her phone. There’s all the usual tourist snaps, Millennial wheel, HOP etc. but there were clearly several of the match at the Vally on Saturday. 
  • Curb_It
    Curb_It Posts: 21,235
    You can spot them easily as a group walked down with six pints on Saturday… soon went back up the steps with them. 
  • jonseventyfive
    jonseventyfive Posts: 3,359
    Half a dozen Americans behind us on Saturday,  knew very little about football talked constantly about baseball,  and even started routing for Wednesday,  fortunately they was politely asked to join the away end or shut the f..k up.
  • hermann
    hermann Posts: 486
    edited October 21
    I had a Swedish fella sat next to me on Saturday. Wednesday had a good chance early in the second half and he nearly leapt out of his seat. I turned and gave him a funny look - he smiled and said 'sorry, that's my son!' 

    Turns out he was Svante Ingelsson's dad. Nice bloke, had a good chat but told him we'd need to be 3 or 4 up before we felt charitable enough to back his lad for a goal. Must be a massive club if players can't even sort their parents out with tickets in the right end...

  • follett
    follett Posts: 1,045
    6 Germans sat next to me on Saturday. Had the shock of my life when one of them started belting out Valley Floyd Road word for word. Has lived in London for a few years and adopted Charlton as his team and his mates were over visiting so he took them to the game. 
    With the difficulty of getting a premier league ticket, we are always going to be popular with the tourists. Saturday especially there seemed to be a lot. Like people said though they often spend money in the club shop etc, although I did see one with a Charlton Sheff W half and half scarf on 

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  • DaveMehmet
    DaveMehmet Posts: 21,628
    Curb_It said:
    You can spot them easily as a group walked down with six pints on Saturday… soon went back up the steps with them. 
    We both got excited for a split second as we thought the rules had been changed!
  • iaitch
    iaitch Posts: 10,244
    Baldybonce said:
    A bunch in the west last saturday all wearing the same shirt but i couldn't make what it was .
    A very big shirt?
  • Stuart_the_Red
    Stuart_the_Red Posts: 1,862
    edited October 21
    There’s going to be even more on Nov. 1 against Swansea, which has been designated as International Supporter’s Day. 
    I know there’s going to be a large contingent of the Swedish Addicks, German Addicks and International Addicks (including me) flying/travelling over!
  • TellyTubby
    TellyTubby Posts: 3,553
    Stuart_the_Red said:
    There’s going to be even more on Nov. 1 against Swansea, which has been designated as International Supporter’s Day. 
    I know there’s going to be a large contingent of the Swedish Addicks, German Addicks and International Addicks (including me) flying/travelling over!
    Do fans from Devon county? It takes much longer to get to The Valley than from some continental locations. 😀
  • Stuart_the_Red
    Stuart_the_Red Posts: 1,862
    TellyTubby said:
    Stuart_the_Red said:
    There’s going to be even more on Nov. 1 against Swansea, which has been designated as International Supporter’s Day. 
    I know there’s going to be a large contingent of the Swedish Addicks, German Addicks and International Addicks (including me) flying/travelling over!
    Do fans from Devon county? It takes much longer to get to The Valley than from some continental locations. 😀
    Probably cheaper too!
  • Baldybonce
    Baldybonce Posts: 9,669
    iaitch said:
    Baldybonce said:
    A bunch in the west last saturday all wearing the same shirt but i couldn't make what it was .
    A very big shirt?
    Seeing as we were playing Wednesday. Massive
  • msomerton
    msomerton Posts: 2,989
    Baldybonce said:
    A bunch in the west last saturday all wearing the same shirt but i couldn't make what it was .
    It said Bratislava, the rest of the printing on the shirt was a kind of joke itinerary of getting to London
    and the football with a lot of drinking.
  • Bod
    Bod Posts: 186
    I sat next to a family of Lazio fans at the Stevenage game.
  • guinnessaddick
    guinnessaddick Posts: 28,731
    TellyTubby said:
    Stuart_the_Red said:
    There’s going to be even more on Nov. 1 against Swansea, which has been designated as International Supporter’s Day. 
    I know there’s going to be a large contingent of the Swedish Addicks, German Addicks and International Addicks (including me) flying/travelling over!
    Do fans from Devon county? It takes much longer to get to The Valley than from some continental locations. 😀
    What about fans coming from east of the Woolwich ferry roundabout?
  • Weegie Addick
    Weegie Addick Posts: 16,561
    Met two separate groups of Germans on Saturday - all in London for NFL. Three were from Carl Zeiss 
    Jena who are still suffering under Roland. There were then another six or so from all over - some Hamburg, some Dusseldorf. Pointed them in direction of The Oak then ended up chatting for a good while with them. They asked about merch so I offered up Mr W's "All Different, All Together, All Charlton" scarf in return for a couple of pints. Mr W seemed fine about it, knowing he can get another one at the next match. Then he remembered it was his Wembley scarf. So German Philip and his brother had better treasure it!

    Also took a photo in front of the big badge for a Canadian family who live locally - hopefully they will be back very soon. 

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  • Henry Irving
    Henry Irving Posts: 85,278
    Regularly get some in the museum.

    I remember a twitter post from a consultant last season which got much derision on here about increasing attendances but I suspect the club been targeting this audience.
  • cafctom
    cafctom Posts: 11,373
    Saw something on the big screen on Saturday that showed the names of those who were here for their first visit - assuming they had just registered their details on the web site for the first time. Lots of Dutch/German/Scandinavian names.

    We spoke to a group of 8 lads who had travelled over from Stuttgart a few weeks back who were also doing trips to West Ham and Chelsea in the same weekend.
  • Tutt-Tutt
    Tutt-Tutt Posts: 3,279
    I had a Danish family of 4 sit behind me in the West Upper on Saturday. They were also going to Spurs v Villa the next day. You know what will happen if Charlton go up in the future. Prices will go up and more tourists will buy up any surplus tickets. A weekend in London watching Premier League football. Isn’t that one of the problems at the Athletics Stadium? Tourists with half and half scarfs killing the atmosphere? 
  • ElfsborgAddick
    ElfsborgAddick Posts: 29,181
    It's been going on for years, back to when we were in the Premier League. 
    It's more common now with the games spread over the weekend giving fans the opportunity to go elsewhere.
    Going abroad for a weekend to take in a game has become increasingly popular, that is good as it is very enjoyable, get to visit a new town/city, watch a game and have a few drinks.  What is not to like :)
  • Karim_myBagheri
    Karim_myBagheri Posts: 12,841
    This is just the beginning. Once we're invited to the new and improved European super league it's gonna be chocker down at the valley.
    @SoundAsa£ is right, best start building up the Jimmy seed and east stands now. 
  • SporadicAddick
    SporadicAddick Posts: 6,900
    edited October 21
    Henry Irving said:
    Regularly get some in the museum.

    I remember a twitter post from a consultant last season which got much derision on here about increasing attendances but I suspect the club been targeting this audience.


    That's a hell of a lot of tourists, coming at a time when there would have been a natural correlation between performance on the pitch and attendances.
  • sam3110
    sam3110 Posts: 21,342
    Group of 15 or so Scandis in the CEL on Saturday 
  • AFKABartram
    AFKABartram Posts: 57,877
    Very noticeable for this game that the club didn’t switch to Database Only sales once Sheffield Wednesday sold their allocation. Can’t remember that being done before, but it’s clear there’s a big market for non-database sales they don’t want to dampen

    I suppose the club will ride it until there is an incident with away fans in home areas. 
  • ElfsborgAddick
    ElfsborgAddick Posts: 29,181
    AFKABartram said:
    Very noticeable for this game that the club didn’t switch to Database Only sales once Sheffield Wednesday sold their allocation. Can’t remember that being done before, but it’s clear there’s a big market for non-database sales they don’t want to dampen

    I suppose the club will ride it until there is an incident with away fans in home areas. 

    Or until we play Portsmouth, and the spanners next season.
  • JohnBoyUK
    JohnBoyUK Posts: 9,038
    Tutt-Tutt said:
    I had a Danish family of 4 sit behind me in the West Upper on Saturday. They were also going to Spurs v Villa the next day. You know what will happen if Charlton go up in the future. Prices will go up and more tourists will buy up any surplus tickets. A weekend in London watching Premier League football. Isn’t that one of the problems at the Athletics Stadium? Tourists with half and half scarfs killing the atmosphere? 
    We've had this at Spurs for years now.  I guess the moment we signed the most high profile Asian star in Sonny has something to do with that.  The number of South Koreans turning up to watch Sonny was unbelievable.  Only last season, we got chatting to a couple of fellas on the train from Liverpool St who told us they had flown in the day before from Seoul to watch Sonny and then were flying home the day after.  Thats a long bloody way just to watch a game of football.

    My wife was flying back from New York last year and she'd phoned me just before take off and we were just chatting and I mentioned I was off to football at the weekend... fella next to her overheard and told her he was in NY Spurs supporters club and about 50 of them were flying over the game and then flying back 24hrs later.

    I had a random Australian sitting next to me in the South on Sunday.  Bless him, he was on his own, in London for business and he's never been to a football game before and openly admitted to not knowing the rules (he's a rugby man) but he knew he had to come to a game while he was here and he politely asked if he could ask questions if he didn't understand anything.   Thankfully, he started a conversation with people sitting the other side and never stopped lol.

    We've got talking to so many people over the years that have flown over for a complete weekend of football, especially where there has been an early London kick off, with a early evening/late kick off and then another game in London on the Sunday or Monday night.  We spoke to a few different randoms in the pub on Sunday who had gone Palace, Charlton, QPR v Millwall and Fulham the previous day.

    Football tourism is never going away.  Going football is fashionable now and people want to be seen at the football, especially PL games.  Of course, its supply and demand.  Spurs (or Arsenal/Chelsea) can literally charge what they want, knowing that punters will happily pay.  Most of the clubs at holding tickets back and distributing them to ticket agents especially for overseas supporters, bunging in a weekend hotel room and stadium tour into the bargain.

    If they fill empty seats then great, its money coming in right?
    Of course, the downside is the atmosphere.  The South Stand was as quiet as I can remember it on Sunday.  There were tourists everywhere.  No songs, just moaning at our own players inability and the occasional booing of Matty Cash.

    Football really isn't what it used to be.  Half & half scarfs bloody everywhere. 

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