Event Concept and Stakeholders
Read:
GET INSTANT HELP FROM EXPERTS!
- Looking for any kind of help on your academic work (essay, assignment, project)?
- Want us to review, proofread or tidy up your work?
- Want a helping hand so that you can focus on the more important tasks?
Hire us as project guide/assistant. Contact us for more information
Tourism Strategy
The Olympics is one of the leading international sporting events, contested by the top athletes, and celebrated as a sports festival by people all over the world.
International sports events attract fans and visitors all over the world. Host Cities prepare a detailed tourism plan to capitalize in such events. As part of its tourism strategy, host cities undertake several infrastructure upgrade and beautification projects.
With sustainable tourism gaining significance worldwide, organisers now are also expected to host the event in a manner that has minimal impact on the environment and employ sustainable methods. For events such as the Olympics, organisers used modular technology in the construction process, so that the structures could easily be dismantled and re-assembled/reused at some other location after the Olympics. Several efficient energy saving systems were used.
Consumer Motivation
Visitors to big events usually have various motivations for attending an event; they all have different expectations. For example, fans could be attracted by a particular music festival because of factors such as fun and dance; novelty; excitement, group identity and entertainment; lifestyle etc. Kye‐Sung Chon (1989) says that in order to effectively serve recreation travellers at their destinations, it is essential for organizers to understand the psychological factors that motivate these travellers.
Events like the Olympics are much more than just sport events. For some stakeholders such as tourist operators, hotel owners, and even the local community, it is a great time to showcase the local culture, attractions, products and services. An important aspect to determine for such events (and the destination) is to understand and analyze the motivation of tourists so that appropriate products for their demands can be designed.
Kruger (n.d.) says that organizers/marketers should find out more about the motives and preferences of the various visitors; it can serve as a useful market segmentation tool that can attract more consumers towards a service/product.
For most athletes, Olympics’ is the ultimate sporting event and getting a medal is a life-long dream for many. They expect the best sporting facilities, better organization of their respective games and practice sessions, accommodation that is closer to the venue, and which allows them to catch-up with athletes from other countries (at the end of the day).
For fans and visitors around the world, the Olympics is an opportunity to watch the greatest sporting spectacle on earth, watch athletes give their best (several world records are broken). It’s the time to meet fans from across the world, and indulge in a 10-day long global sports festival.
For tourists, it’s also an opportunity to explore and experience the local culture people and checkout popular tourist attractions. Most tourists organize their travel itinerary in such a way that they get to experience at least a few days at the Olympics. They expect availability of decent rooms, convenient transportation, feeling of safety, and warm and cheerful locals.
Impacts of Hallmark Events
While evaluating the costs and benefits associated with a particular event, usually the economic impact of the event receives the greatest attention. Della Bitta et al. (1977) has explained the following impacts of hallmark events in her paper.
Economic Impact:
Positives
- Local Infrastructure in Rio de Janeiro was upgraded, new stadiums were built and existing ones were renovated to host all the games
- Overall urban security measures were improved. The Games required more than 200 kilometres of security fencing.
Negatives
- Big financial drain on the local economy. The games also left Brazil with a huge debt, as the country finds itself in an economic crisis.
- Most of the development took place in areas near Rio de Janeiro, despite the huge expenditure incurred by the Government.
GET INSTANT HELP FROM EXPERTS!
- Looking for any kind of help on your academic work (essay, assignment, project)?
- Want us to review, proofread or tidy up your work?
- Want a helping hand so that you can focus on the more important tasks?
Hire us as project guide/assistant. Contact us for more information
Political Impact
Positives
- The success of the event proved to the world that Brazil (among the fastest growing economies in the world) could host big, international events
Negatives
- Locals were critical that the money spent on the games could have been spent on improving healthcare, education and other services
Socio-Cultural Impacts
Positives
- Brazil has a wonderful culture, which tourists got to experience. Besides, Rio city has several attractions for the tourists. Close to half a million visitors got to interact with the local people.
- The games provided several volunteering and short term employment opportunities to locals
Negatives
- Several officials complained about high water pollution levels in the water bodies where boat races were held
- Cases of the deadly Zika virus did prevent many more visitors from travelling to Brazil.
Rio Summer Olympics
Rio de Janeiro did a great job of hosting the Olympic Games in 2016. However, it did receive a fair bit of criticism as well, especially after the games were over. There are many who feel that Brazil is not enjoying the economic benefits of hosting the Olympics and many Brazilians feel the money could have been better spent on public services. However, When IOC awarded the Olympics to Rio back in 2009, very few would have anticipated that the country would find itself in a political and economic crisis. Rio Olympics has also drawn criticism for the way it has managed the Olympics legacy. Several sports venues that should have been used by sportspersons are lying unused. Venues that should have been dismantled and rebuilt as schools elsewhere, has not been done. Brazil has also not been able to control pollution levels after the Olympics. This is where the authorities should have pulled up their socks together.
Wyre Davies (2017) says Brazil should have planned better as to how it would effectively use the Olympics legacy in the future so that the various sports facilities and world-class infrastructure continue to get used by budding sportspersons and helps them win medals for the country. Also, in order to fully realize the cultural potential of such events, it’s important to do a thorough research on the visitors so that plans for tourism promotion can be improved.
The various stakeholders should also use the right marketing mix to make sure they are achieving the maximum benefit from the marketplace during such events. Some of these practices can also be applied to event management in order to get the best results for the event management efforts.
Conclusion
Sports tourism is big business today, and events are a major component of sports tourism, and quite significant if you consider its impact on economy and inflow of tourists. Sports events are increasingly becoming an important tool for economic development for cities/regions; it also plays a very important role in changing the perception of a city/region in the foreign media and in the mind of foreign visitors.Hosting an international sports event such as the Olympics games is also a matter of pride for any country/city and the people living in that country. There are several cities that would love to host it but are unable to meet the stringent conditions laid down by the IOC (International Olympic committee). IOC also tries to take the games to as many countries as possible, so a city that has already hosted the games usually does not get the opportunity to host it again soon. This is one of the reasons why, despite the huge costs and scale of operations involved in hosting such events, cities try their best to win the bid for hosting the games.
Despite all the challenges, sport event tourism is seen as a substantial and highly desirable niche market. Cities in the developed countries have established sport commissions / corporations that bid for international events with the intention of promoting this form of travel, and destinations around the world furiously compete with one another in order to win the rights to host high-profile sport events.
References
Allen, J., O’Toole, W., Harris, R. and McDonnell, I. (2008). Festival and special event management (4th edition). Milton: John Wiley.
Andrew Downie (2017) Rio 2016 price tag rises to $13.2 billion [Online]. Available at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-brazil-cost/rio-2016-price-tag-rises-to-13-2-billion-idUSKBN19539C [Accessed: 20 January 2019]
Brent Ritchie, J.R., (1984) Assessing the impact of hallmark events: Conceptual and research issues. Journal of travel research, 23(1), pp.2-11.
Deery et al. (2004) Sport Tourism or Event Tourism: Are they one and the same. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 9(3), p.243
Della Bitta, A.J., Loudon, D.L., Booth, G.G. and Weeks, R.R., 1977. Estimating the economic impact of a short-term tourist event. Journal of Travel Research, 16(2), pp.10-15.
Goldblatt, J. J. (1997). Special events: best practices in modern event management.New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Hall Colin Michael (1989) The definition and analysis of hallmark tourist events. GeoJournal, 19(3), p.263
Kruger, M. (2016) A 3E typology of visitors at an electronic dance music festival. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVENT AND FESTIVAL MANAGEMENT, 7(3), p.1 (from abstract)
Kye‐Sung Chon (1989) “Understanding recreational traveler’s motivation, attitude and satisfaction”, The Tourist Review, Vol. 44 Issue: 1, pp.3-7
Mendelow, A., (1991) December. Stakeholder mapping. In Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on information systems, Cambridge, MA.
Pine, B.J. and Gilmore, J.H. (1999). The experience economy. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Robyn Stokes (2007) Tourism strategy making: Insights to the events tourism domain. Tourism Management 29 (2008) 252–262
Savage, G.T., Nix, T.W., Whitehead, C.J. and Blair, J.D., (1991) Strategies for assessing and managing organizational stakeholders. Academy of management perspectives, 5(2), pp.61-75.
Wyre Davies (2017) In Rio for Radio 5 live Breakfast [Online]. Available at https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/39323546 [Accessed: 20 January 2019]
GET INSTANT HELP FROM EXPERTS!
- Looking for any kind of help on your academic work (essay, assignment, project)?
- Want us to review, proofread or tidy up your work?
- Want a helping hand so that you can focus on the more important tasks?
StudyMumbai.com is an educational resource for students, parents, and teachers, with special focus on Mumbai. Our staff includes educators with several years of experience. Our mission is to simplify learning and to provide free education. Read more about us.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.