Tourism growth tends to "stall" in cities that host the Summer Olympics, according to data analyzed by the European Tour Operators Association.

The ETOA has previously published reports that suggested that the Olympic Games hurt rather than helped tourism in the host country.

In a report issued Thursday, the ETOA said it examined arrivals to host cities following the last six Summer Olympics -- Beijing, Athens, Sydney, Atlanta, Barcelona and Seoul. The trade group discovered that all six experienced a "major disruption" in tourism and none had any "conspicuous growth."

"Over the past two decades, tourism has grown consistently on a worldwide basis," the ETOA said. "As a consequence, one would expect most cities to show tourism growth year on year. For the Olympic cities, tourism growth tends to be stalled, and the stall becomes most apparent when a comparison is made with competitor destinations."

For example, Australia and New Zealand tourism grew at the same rate in the five years prior to the Olympics, but Australia's growth lagged behind New Zealand's following the Olympics, the ETOA said.

The ETOA recalled that Australia ran an ad campaign after the 2000 Sydney Olympics with the slogan "Where the bloody hell are you?" 

In Beijing, where the 2008 Summer Games were held, international visitor numbers were down more than 20% in the months following the Olympics, according to the ETOA. For all of 2008, tourism demand fell 2% for mainland China but plummeted 18% for Beijing, it said.

"We have yet to have a Games where tourism has not been disrupted, and disrupted in a way that causes real harm," said Tom Jenkins, the ETOA's executive director.

"Even in the case of Athens, where they carefully restricted new capacity, there were considerable losses before and after the Games, both in the capital and throughout Greece."