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The international tourism effect of hosting the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup
Abstract
This study analyzes whether hosting mega-sporting events is a useful marketing platform for countries to promote international tourism on a longer term basis. Our model adopts the gravity equation of international trade to bilateral international tourist arrivals. We find a country-level tourism effect only for the Summer Olympic Games. Hosting increases international tourist arrivals significantly in the 8 years before, during, and in the 20 years after the event. In contrast, hosting the FIFA World Cup is overall ineffective in tourism promotion despite higher tourist arrivals in the event year. We attribute these differences in international tourism legacy to the level of strategic planning in promoting tourism, the impact of media on the broadcasting audience, and the participating countries.
... The existing work has answered the questions of the direction, size, and length of a potential tourism effect with mega sports events (Vierhaus, 2018). International mega sports games, such as Summer/Winter Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup, were considered to have a great influence on tourism consistently. ...
... International mega sports games, such as Summer/Winter Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup, were considered to have a great influence on tourism consistently. Among them, the Summer Olympic Games could promote the country-level tourism effect more than FIFA World Cup though FIFA World Cup attracted more tourist arrival (Vierhaus 2018). While Gaudette et al. (2017) found that the Winter Olympic Games since 2002 had a different impact on tourism in different host cities, and analyzed the positive, mixed, and negative effects of the Winter Olympic Games. ...
... After eliminating duplicate entries, 184 and 74 related terms are extracted in Beijing and Sanya, respectively. Table 2 shows the basic search queries for events, namely, terrorist activities (Bianchi, 2006), financial crisis (Lim & McAleer, 2005), natural calamities (Huang & Min, 2002), pandemic (Yang and Chen, 2009), air crash (Hall & Page 2016) international relations (Çalışkan et al., 2019;Paik, 2019), mega sports events (Gaudette et al., 2017;Vierhaus, 2018) and culture activities (Witt et al., 1995;Zhang et al., 2020). For some partial crisis events, we limited the location of the events, such as terrorist activities and natural calamities, etc. ...
Developing an accurate tourism forecasting decision support system can help the tourism department achieve optimal resource allocation, which is crucial for achieving sustainable tourism operation management and a circular economy. Recent decades have witnessed the frequent strikes of crisis events and mega-events, which profoundly influence tourist arrival volume and bring a great challenge to forecasting tourist arrival volume. To solve this issue, we develop a deep learning framework to forecast the tourist arrival volume utilizing search engine data containing the trends of tourism intention and different event information. Our proposed model is novel for the following reasons: (1) The disturbance value can predict tourist arrival volume in coordination with the trend of travel plans. (2) Compared with the traditional models, our model can reduce the complexity of the model while maintaining accuracy. (3) Our proposed framework introducing event-related search volumes can capture the concerns of tourists and the potential loss of tourist arrivals, enhancing the model’s predictive power. Experimental results show that our model can accurately forecast the tourist arrival volume by employing the monthly data in Beijing and Sanya, China. Moreover, our findings provide policymakers with more understanding of the relationship between various predictive factors and tourist arrivals. Based on the forecasting results, allocating an appropriate amount of clean energy transportation capacity, garbage treatment capacity, and fresh food supply capacity to the city can effectively promote the circular economy.
... T he Olympics and Paralympics (hereinafter called the Olympics) are sporting mega-events that are held once in four years and involve large-scale collaboration among international and local governments, as well as private corporations in the host country. For host countries, the Olympics is an opportunity to improve their urban functions (Agha et al., 2012;Essex and Chalkley, 1998;Ogura, 2018), achieve economic benefits (Chong and Hui, 2013;Ferreira, 1998;Rose and Spiegel, 2011;Vierhaus, 2019), and strengthen the "city brand" (Berkowitz et al., 2007;Bondonio and Guala, 2011;Gries et al., 2010;Panagiotopoulou, 2012). ...
... • Economy: The Olympics attracts tourists and businesses worldwide (Ferreira, 1998). It has been shown that from 8 years before the event to 16 years after it, the arrival of foreign tourists to a host country increases significantly (Chong and Hui, 2013;Vierhaus, 2019). Sponsorship of the Olympics also stimulates the export industry, and not because of the hosting of the event itself; once a country is settled to host the Olympics, information about the country is better disseminated around the world (Rose and Spiegel, 2011). ...
... On the other hand, the economic effects mentioned in the section "Olympic effects", which are identified from previous studies, can also be factors that foster a positive attitude (Chong and Hui, 2013;Ferreira, 1998;Rose and Spiegel, 2011;Vierhaus, 2019). Further, the economic effects as perceived by citizens may also influence their attitude toward the Olympics (Prayag et al., 2013). ...
Little is known about the responses of citizens toward sporting mega-events held during a period of extended disasters, such as the 2020 Olympics held during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to clarify the factors affecting citizens’ attitudes by testing the following hypotheses: the perception of high cost, the burden on medical institutions, and high risk of infectious disease spread negatively affect attitudes, while the perception of pandemic countermeasures, economic benefits, and athletes positively affect attitudes. Based on an online survey of 800 citizens before the 2020 Olympics, the hypotheses were tested using logistic regression models with the extracted factors as the explanatory variables and the attitude toward the Olympics as the objective variable. The test results confirm the factors lineated by the hypotheses, except for the perception of high cost. The fear of a healthcare system collapse from the medical burden of dealing with an outbreak has an especially strong negative effect on the attitude toward the Olympics. These results have important implications for city governments and municipalities and suggest that they should not underestimate citizens’ perceptions and attitudes when organizing mega-events and formulating proper communication. Further, the results may offer insights for the smooth strategic planning of large-scale events during unprecedented disasters.
... FIFA World Cups drive significantly more fans to the hosting destination, leading to the opposite effects perceived during the Olympic Games [22]. The author's findings showcase exploitation of the destination during the event with no long-term effect and an insignificant effect on the revisit intentions and future development of tourism in the destination. ...
... Another aspect of the impact is in the competing clubs, where the more popular the opponents are, the higher the impact on the local hospitality market might be. [11] Similarly to several studies [20], [21], [22], the effect of hosting the finals of the UEFA competitions was perceived mainly during the days before and during the event. Compared to performance in upcoming years, the hospitality market faced decline in interest and performance or was not significantly better than in the other periods of the year. ...
Sports events significantly affect the hosting destination and the interest in its visiting. Previous studies focused mainly on longitudinal events like the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cups, where the single-day events were not investigated. The paper investigates how hosting UEFA competition finals affects the local hospitality industry's performance. The study adopted the benchmarking data from Smith Travel Research (STR) and evaluated the impact on the occupancy and prices of accommodation facilities. The results show a significant pricing effect for the day of the event and the day before the finals. There was increased demand when focusing on the occupancy rate, but not as significant as for the prices. No long-term effect on the hospitality industry was identified, and, in some cases, the negative effect might be perceived after the event's termination. To benefit from the event with significant interest from football fans, hoteliers should increase the sales rates, provide the guests with a broader range of services, and cooperate with the event organisers to increase the total performance.
... When it comes to social media marketing and content, the use of media and proper strategic planning are key factors in attracting international tourism when mega-events such as sports events are being hosted (Vierhaus 2018). Javed, Tučková, and Jibril also explained that social media could have a significant impact on tourists' behavior by influencing factors such as the perceived value of tourism products and services (Javed et al. 2020). ...
... In the event of a survey investigating tourists' attitudes and use of tourismrelated services in the destination activities, the first domain of tourists' gender, age, income, education, and nationality should be included. The second domain of the survey is the importance of social media and networks (tourism social media content in Saudi Arabia) in attracting tourists' attention and arousing curiosity; we adapted this construct from (Vierhaus 2018). Social media and networks are increasingly important in recruiting tourists and informing them about available travel and tourism services. ...
Over the last decade, social media (SM) has dramatically influenced the tourism sector, and information exchange via SM platforms may affect tourists’ intentions to revisit a tourist destination. In the present study, we investigated the impact of content shared on SM on tourists’ intentions to revisit Saudi Arabia as a neighboring destination to Qatar during the period of a mega-event (Football World Cup). We also assessed the potential mediation effects of the perceived values and trust in local tourism services on such a relationship. A structured survey was distributed to football fans who came to visit Saudi Arabia (n = 300), and a partial least squares structural equation model was constructed to validate this study’s model. Results showed that SM content did not significantly impact the revisit intentions directly. SM content was a significant antecedent predictor of the perceived trust, and the perceived trust predicted future intentions to revisit Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the perceived trust in tourism services was a significant mediator of tourism SM’s effects on tourists’ intentions. However, the mediation path of the perceived value was not statistically significant. Tourism marketers had to ensure that they appropriately convey engaging content that focuses on supporting the trust in a destination, particularly during the periods of mega-events.
... Kim & Kaplanidou, 2019;Koenigstorfer et al., 2019;Wan & Song, 2019;Zouni, Markogiannaki, & Georgaki, 2020) with the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup as the most frequently studied events(Bek, Merendino, Swart, & Timms, 2019; Kim, Kim, Cho, & Yim, 2019;Vierhaus, 2019). ...
... Kirkup & Sutherland, 2017;Kruger & Heath, 2013;Lu et al., 2020;Lyu & Han, 2017;Ma et al., 2013;Mackellar & Nisbet, 2017;Marković et al., 2020;Mhanna et al., 2017;Misener, 2015;Ormerod & Wood, 2020;Park, Yoon, Chung, & Park, 2019;Pereira et al., 2019;Pereira et al., 2015;Pinson, 2016;Presenza & Sheehan, 2013;Preuss & Alfs, 2011;Sallent et al., 2011;Schnitzer, Kössler, Schlemmer, & Peters, 2020;Schnitzer & Barth, 2019;Scholtz, 2019;Solberg & Preuss, 2007;Tang & Wang, 2020;Tichaawa & Bob, 2015;Veal, Toohey, & Frawley, 2012;Vegara-Ferri, Saura, López-Gullón, Sánchez, & Angosto, 2018;Werner, Dickson, & Hyde, 2015;Xue & Mason, 2017;Yao & Schwarz, 2018;Ziakas, 2014;Ziakas & Costa, 2011; Zouni et al., 2020 (6) Legacy: impacts/effects context 35.7% Abdel Azim Ahmed, 2017;Agha et al., 2012;Ahlert, 2006;Barajas et al., 2016;Barget & Gouguet, 2012; Beket al., 2019; Bondarik et al., 2020; Bottero, Sacerdotti, & Mauro, 2012; Choe, Park, & Kim, 2017; Cornelissen et al., 2011; Dongfeng, 2013; du Plessis & Maennig, 2011; Duglio & Beltramo, 2017; Duignan, 2019; Elahi et al., 2020; Fourie et al., 2011; Grix, Brannagan, Wood, & Wynne, 2017; Harris, 2015; Hassan & Connor, 2009; Jago et al., 2010; Jones & Navarro, 2018; Kaplanidou, 2012; Karadakis & Kaplanidou, 2012; Kim et al., 2019; Kim et al., 2017; Kwiatkowski & Könecke, 2017; Lamla, Straub, & Girsberger, 2014; Lee & Taylor, 2005; Li, Blake, & Thomas, 2013; Li & McCabe, 2013; Lin & Lu, 2018; Liu, Broom, & Wilson, 2014; Massiani, 2018; Meurer & Lins, 2018; Mills & Rosentraub, 2013; Mooney, McCall, & Paton, 2015; Moss et al., 2019; Müller & Moesch, 2010;Nakamura & Suzuki, 2017;Nishio, 2013;Ntloko & Swart, 2008;Phillips & Barnes, 2015;Preuss, 2011;Ribeiro et al., 2020;Rocha & Fink, 2017;Rogerson, 2016; Salgado-Barandela,Barajas, & Sánchez-Fernández, 2018;Vierhaus, 2019;Walker et al., 2013;Wan & Song, 2019;Wood & Meng, 2020;Zawadzki, 2020 environmental, and social value(Kaplanidou & Vogt, 2010). However, there are still gaps in research on the attributes and characteristics of SEs, which require an accurate understanding of the respective effects and dynamics. ...
The link between sports and tourism has been widely researched. In this context, many studies have focused on sports event (SEs), finding that SEs provide a multitude of opportunities but also face many challenges at a local level. Despite the academic interest in the sports event tourism field, there is still little synthesis and no overview of research directions. Therefore, we proposed answering three research questions (RQs): What do we know today about the tourism perspectives of sports events? (RQ1); What are the main tourism implications of a sports event? (RQ2); What are the most and least investigated streams of research in this specific field of study? (RQ3). To answer these questions we conducted a systematized literature analysis including worldwide literature published between June 2000 and October 2020. Based on the findings, we provided insights into six clusters and their characteristics and highlighted major avenues to describe how SEs provide unique assets for tourism host destinations. Finally, we drew attention to important implications for future research, particularly in the context of the role of events for tourism recovery in the post-COVID-19 time.
... These studies often focus on the hospitality and tourism industries as SMEs are marketed toward tourists, and international arrivals increase during an SME (Baade, Baumann, & Matheson, in press;Baumann & Matheson, 2018;Dansero & Puttilli, 2010;Vierhaus, 2019). In anticipation of these tourism influxes, host nations are often required to increase their pre-event investment in hotels or infrastructure, such as beautifying the city, constructing and expanding stadia, updating physical and digital infrastructure, and building entertainment districts (Baade & Matheson, 2016;Dollinger, Li, & Mooney, 2010). ...
... Given the weak evidence of a positive impact of SMEs on the traditional measures of economic activity, research has, again, redirected its focus on the outcomes of the services sector arising from sports tourists. In comparison with sporting contests, the scale of international visitors is much larger and the duration of their stay much longer (Vierhaus, 2019). Baade et al. (in press) highlighted this by showing that the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil increased tourist arrivals by approximately one million visitors and that just under 100,000 international tourists arrived for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. ...
It is acknowledged that the economic benefits of hosting a sporting mega event are overestimated and/or short lived. However, many studies neglect the impact of the industrial sector, preferring to focus on service sector activity. It is further claimed that hosting a sporting mega event funnels a nation’s resources into one specific region at the expense of others. Therefore, this article empirically investigates whether industrial firms in Beijing disproportionately (a) increased their invested capital ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games and (b) became more profitable after the Games relative to similar firms from comparable Chinese nonhost cities. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, the authors find no disproportionate impact of the Olympic Games on Beijing firms’ invested capital or profitability.
... The literature focuses almost exclusively on short-and long-term impacts of sporting events on tourist demand (e.g. Brännäs and Nordström, 2006;Fourie and Santana-Gallego, 2011;Kang and Perdue, 1994;Vierhaus, 2019); impacts on aggregate outcome variables, such as gross domestic product per capita and population (Billings and Holladay, 2012;Brückner and Pappa, 2015;Firgo, 2019;Nitsch and Wendland, 2017); or economic impacts on related industries such as accommodation, restaurants, retail and entertainment (Daniels and Norman, 2003;Daniels et al., 2004). Studies focusing on the impact of small-scale events typically estimate the additional revenues to the city generated by the events using stand-alone surveys (Ryan, 1998;Ryan and Lockyer, 2001). ...
... However, the Winter Olympics are not significantly linked to tourist arrivals in the host country. Vierhaus (2019) shows that the hosting of the Summer Olympics significantly increases the number of international tourist arrivals in the host countries before, during and after the event. In contrast, the FIFA World Cup has no long-term impact on tourist arrivals. ...
A difference-in-differences analysis is used to investigate the short-term price effects of eight sporting events in Finnish Lapland. Data consist of 220,000 room bookings from the reservation system of a nine-hotels chain. Treated hotels are those located within an area where sporting events are regularly held. The control group consists of hotels further away that are not affected by the event. Robust regressions show that hotel room prices rise by 14% on average during the event, when booking and guest specific factors are held constant. For the pre-event period, no significant positive price effect can be detected, and for the post-event period, there is even a significant negative effect of 6%, on average. In addition, there is a large variation in the price effects across the different sporting events, with the highest for the Levi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup competition (60%) and no effect for some small-scale events. Quantile regressions show that price effects are slightly higher for high-priced than for low-priced rooms.
... The means and investments they mobilise, the defined time frame they impose, the media coverage and promotion they allow (Deng et al., 2019) are all tools for promoting the host city. The event is what creates the before and after, and opens up new possibilities for the place in question, including its tourism development (Vierhaus, 2018), despite the nuanced outcomes and long-term impacts on the post-event tourism sector (Gaudette et al., 2017;Jones and Ponzini 2018). P. Duran (Duran, 2002) shows that they are an opportunity to highlight a decisive factor: the state of the city's tourist policies, beyond the sports sector alone, or the temporality of the event itself (Weed, 2008). ...
Faced with the controversies surrounding the Olympic Games (OG), they are moving towards a greater integration of local challenges – economic, social and environmental. Associating the hosting of such event with the urban regeneration policies appears to be a way to include them in longer planning periods, as well as ensure they are remembered. Presented as engines of transformations, they contribute to promotion of requalified and re-invested spaces that correspond better with the image of a competitive global city. The development of tourism strategies stems from this land promotion and appears as one of the economic outlets of the post-industrial transition. On the other hand, the reuse of industrial buildings helps build a positive image and a lasting legacy for the OG, as catalysts for regeneration of brownfields in crisis – as can be seen in the official Olympic narrative. Through the analysis of three case studies, this article aims to identify how does tourism development fit into these strategies that link industrial and Olympic heritage. Keywords: industrial heritage, regeneration, Olympic Games, tourism, heritage, territorial
... Sports events attract domestic and international tourists, leading to increased travel, accommodation bookings, and spending on dining, shopping and entertainment (Jeong & Kim, 2022). Major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, or World Cups, can have a substantial impact on the host city's tourism industry (Vierhaus, 2019). Cities and countries strategically bid to host these events to capitalise on the economic benefits associated with increased tourism. ...
When implemented strategically, sports can address various socioeconomic challenges and contribute to improving the well-being of individuals and communities. This study explores the perceptions of citizens on the capabilities of sports in its present state in Ghana as an option for poverty reduction strategy. The researchers combined both qualitative and quantitative approaches, methodologies and techniques in this study. The researchers made use of questionnaires and interviews to gather data for this study. The study implored the integration of data methods by using sequential approach, and the six steps of thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke (2012, Thematic analysis, American Psychological Association) in the data analysis. The research recognised that participation in sports can improve one's health, give one life skills and foster a sense of community togetherness. However, given the weak foundation for sports development in Ghana, the current situation of sports in the country cannot be used as a strategy for reducing poverty.
... However, only short-term economic benefits are often found. The focus of the studies is on the hospitality and tourism sector, as mega events promote the tourism market and international arrivals, which increase during their conduct (Vierhaus, 2019). In anticipation of these tourist inflows, host countries are often required to increase their investments, prior to the event, in hotels or infrastructure, such as the beautification of the city, the construction and expansion of stadiums, the upgrading physical and digital infrastructure and building entertainment areas (Dollinger et al., 2010). ...
Purpose – The purpose of the research is to capture the short-term and long-term positive results from the organization of a mega-event in the tourism development of the host country.
Individual objectives concern the economic, social and cultural effects of a mega sports event, the economic, environmental and social effects on tourism, as well as possible opportunities
through the creation of new ones and the improvement of the existing sports and tourist infrastructure.
Design/methodology/approach – 1. What are the short-term benefits of organizing a mega-event in tourism? 2. What are the long-term benefits of organizing a mega-event in tourism (heritage of the tourism product)? The bibliographic review will be used methodologically to answer the research questions, through the use of secondary research sources.
Findings – The impact that major sporting events have is huge for the host countries, in terms of tourism and the revenue generated by visitors, the visibility that the country acquires, as well as the awareness of the people on issues related to its culture and culture. The benefits for the host country are many, both in the short and long term. Research
limitations/implications – The results have shown that the benefits are varied, but further research is needed, with a focus on the environmental footprint and sustainable practices applied to such events.
Practical implications – The aspect of usefulness of the research will provide information about the real results of organizing a popular mega-event, the opportunities it gives to the
local community, as well as the immediate financial benefits. Furthermore, it will highlight that the international tourism industry has recently intensified its efforts, so that sports tourism
grows into a strategic factor in the reshaping and planning of a country's tourist traffic, with emphasis on the proper rational organization and future utilization of infrastructure.
Originality/value – The research becomes original, as it focuses on the organization of a mega-event and the positive impact it had on levels of tourist demand, despite the adversity generated by the fact of the terrorist attack
... The investment in transport resources includes Hamad International Airport, which is recognised as the world's premier airport, and the Doha Automated Railway Network. The Qatar Statistics Authority recorded that the number of hotels in Qatar reached ten as of 2018, doubling the number of hotels compared to 2009 [7]. ...
The close relationship between major sporting events and tourism has become an essential driver of the global economy and culture. The mutually reinforcing relationship between sports events and tourism has been highlighted over the past few decades, with many countries actively bidding for sporting events to demonstrate their national power and receive investment to upgrade tourism and infrastructure. Major sporting events not only attract international and domestic tourists and raise the profile of the venue, but also contribute to the development and upgrading of infrastructure, bringing a short-term influx of tourists to the local tourism and service industries, as well as contributing to the future development of the tourism industry. Tourism also plays a vital role in bidding for and hosting events, and the development of tourism supports the better running of events, while a well-developed tourism industry also increases the number of spectators for sporting events. Using the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as a case study, this paper discusses explicitly the relationship between sporting events and local tourism and goes on to explore the mutually beneficial relationship between the two.
... We construct an econometric model of bilateral tourist flows based on the gravity approach, first applied by Tinbergen (1962) in economics and since then commonly used for the econometric modeling of international trade (Anderson & Van Wincoop, 2003;Carrere, 2006;Savin et al., 2020), foreign direct investment (Bénassy-Quéré et al., 2007;Kleinert, 2010), and migration flows (Beine et al., 2016;Kim & Cohen, 2010). The gravity approach in explaining international tourist flows is supported both theoretically (Morley et al., 2014) and empirically (e.g., Fourie & Santana-Gallego, 2011;Khadaroo, 2008;Keum, 2010;Song, 2010;Vierhaus, 2019). ...
This paper contributes to the literature examining the impact of large-scale sport events (LSEs) on international tourist inflows from 1995 to 2019. Our proposed method involves the calculation of tourist potentials and the analysis of actual-to-potential ratios before and after the event. This approach allows us to measure the effect of LSE on a particular hosting country rather than its average effect. Our findings demonstrate a strong "crowding-out" effect for international tourists, with only four out of 18 LSEs resulting in a positive effect on tourist arrivals in the host country.
... The effect is not limited to the Olympic period. From 8 years before to 16 years after the Olympics, the arrival of tourists from abroad significantly increased [22,23]. Moreover, hosting the Olympics stimulates the export industry. ...
Governments worldwide are competing to internationalize their cities. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Japan promoted not only the construction of stadiums but also multilingual support of city facilities. However, to truly internationalize a city, considering the above facilities and systems alone is insufficient. The perspective of citizen consciousness is lacking. Existing literature on Olympic effects is largely limited to three aspects: development of urban facilities, economic effects, and strengthening of a city’s brand. Academically, little has been discussed about the impact of the Olympics on the international consciousness of citizens. Thus, this study clarified the impact of hosting the Olympics on citizen’s interest in foreign cultures. Online surveys conducted in 2019–2022 in Japan showed that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the Olympics, citizens’ interest in foreign cultures and their overall happiness did not change. However, by applying a multiple regression analysis, a positive interaction was detected between holding the Olympics and citizens’ happiness. Therefore, citizen’s interest in foreign cultures brought by the Olympics is conditional on citizens’ sense of happiness. Hence, public sentiment should be improved before the Olympics is held. Practitioners should not depend on the Olympics to instantly improve public sentiment across the board. Practitioners should consider facilities and public sentiment as two key components of urban design. Even if governments invest in equipment, if they do not obtain the cooperation of its citizens, trouble will occur, and sustainable growth will be difficult.KeywordsUrban PlanningInternationalizationOlympic Effects
... The means and investments they mobilise, the defined time frame they impose, the media coverage and promotion they allow (Deng et al., 2019) are all tools for promoting the host city. The event is what creates the before and after, and opens up new possibilities for the place in question, including its tourism development (Vierhaus, 2018), despite the nuanced outcomes and long-term impacts on the post-event tourism sector (Gaudette et al., 2017;Jones and Ponzini 2018). P. Duran (Duran, 2002) shows that they are an opportunity to highlight a decisive factor: the state of the city's tourist policies, beyond the sports sector alone, or the temporality of the event itself (Weed, 2008). ...
Faced with the controversies surrounding the Olympic Games (OG), they are moving towards a greater integration of local challenges – economic, social and environmental. Associating the hosting of such event with the urban regeneration policies appears to be a way to include them in longer planning periods, as well as ensure they are remembered. Presented as engines of transformations, they contribute to promotion of requalified and re-invested spaces that correspond better with the image of a competitive global city. The development of tourism strategies stems from this land promotion and appears as one of the economic outlets of the post-industrial transition. On the other hand, the reuse of industrial buildings helps build a positive image and a lasting legacy for the OG, as catalysts for regeneration of brownfields in crisis – as can be seen in the official Olympic narrative. Through the analysis of three case studies, this article aims to identify how does tourism development fit into these strategies that link industrial and Olympic heritage.
... Les moyens et investissements qu'ils mobilisent, la temporalité définie qu'ils imposent, la médiatisation et promotion qu'ils permettent (Deng et al., 2019) sont autant d'outils pour valoriser la ville hôte. L'événement, est ce qui crée un avant et un après, et ouvre de nouveaux possibles pour l'espace concerné, dont sa mise en tourisme (Vierhaus, 2018), malgré des conclusions nuancées sur l'impact à long-terme sur le secteur touristique post-évènement (Gaudette et al., 2017 ;Jones et Ponzini 2018). P. Duran (Duran, 2002) montre qu'ils sont l'occasion de mettre en lumière un facteur décisif : un état des lieux des politiques touristiques de la ville, au-delà du seul secteur sportif ou de la temporalité même de l'événement (Weed, 2008). ...
Face aux controverses qui visent les Jeux Olympiques (JO), ceux-ci évoluent vers une plus grande intégration des enjeux locaux, en termes économiques, sociaux, et environnementaux. Associer l’accueil d’un tel évènement avec des politiques de régénération urbaine, apparaît comme un moyen de les inscrire dans un temps plus long de planification, autant que de nourrir leur mémoire. Présentés comme moteurs de transformations, ils contribuent à promouvoir ces espaces réinvestis et requalifiés, qui correspondent mieux à l’image de la ville globale compétitive. L’élaboration de stratégies touristiques découle de cette promotion territoriale, et apparaît comme un des débouchés économiques de la transition post-industrielle. En contrepoint, le réemploi du bâti industriel nourrit l’image d’un héritage positif et durable pour les Jeux Olympiques, comme déclencheurs d’un renouveau pour des friches industrielles en crise – tel que cela peut être décrit dans le récit olympique officiel. À travers l’analyse de trois études de cas, cet article a pour but de cerner la manière dont le développement touristique s’insère dans ces stratégies qui lient patrimoine industriel et héritage olympique.
... Over the last six events, the Summer Olympics has averaged 10,000 athletes compared with 2100 for the Winter Olympics and 600 for the FIFA World Cup. This is consistent with the findings from Dick and Wang [27] and Vierhaus [28] that stress the importance of Summer Olympics in boosting local economies. ...
We examine the economic effects of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup on the economies of host countries. We found that in the short run, hosting the Olympic Games has a significant positive announcement effect on the host country’s equity market. Our results also revealed a positive effect on the stock market in non-G7 countries hosting a mega sporting event and an insignificant effect in G7 countries hosting such events, indicating that hosting a mega sporting event can provide additional momentum for developing or emerging economies. We did find, however, that while the countries hosting the Summer Olympic Games initially experienced significant positive GDP growth, the effect rapidly diminished after the event. Our results suggest that hosting a mega sporting event such as the Summer Olympic Games is most likely to result in a short-term positive economic momentum, however it hinders sustainable growth for the host countries’ economies.
... Several studies corroborate an increase in tourism arrival while hosting mega-sports events (Fourie & Santana-Gallego, 2011) and short-term destination image boots (Kassens-Noor et al., 2019;Lai, 2018). However, research is not entirely assured whether megasports events generate long-term destination promotion effects (Hahm et al., 2019;Vierhaus, 2019). ...
Understanding residents' preferences for mega-sports events is a hot topic in tourism and event research. Thus far, most studies have assumed homogeneous preferences, and linear utility additivity of all event attributes when measuring residents' support. This study uses an adaptive choice-based conjoint analysis combined with hierarchical Bayesian estimation. In contrast to previous research, the method considers the entire spectrum of residents' preferences at the individual level and identifies non-substitutable dominant preferences (must-haves and unacceptables). A survey with 687 residents was conducted in Tyrol, an Austrian state with a remarkable Olympic tradition. The findings of this study extend the current literature by showing that the usually applied assumptions (homogeneous and linear additive substitutable preferences) are violated with substantial consequences. A simulation allows transforming the survey results into hypothetical referendum support rates for different feasible concepts of the Olympic Games.
... Climate change risks to the Olympic mega-events and associated international tourism (Gaudette et al., 2017;Vierhaus, 2019) have also been examined, with the ability to hold some outdoor events reliably and safely at previous Games locations questioned. Of the 645 cities in the Northern Hemisphere examined by Smith et al. (2016), between 92.5% and 98.5% would not meet the requirements to safely hold the marathon event and would not be a suitable host for the summer Olympics (in July and August) in the late twenty-first century under a high emission climate change future. ...
The International Olympic Committee recognizes the risks climate change pose to the Games and its responsibility to lead on climate action. Winter is changing at the past Olympic Winter Games (OWG) locations and an important perspective to understand climate change risk is that of the athletes who put themselves at risk during these mega-sport events. A survey of 339 elite athletes and coaches from 20 countries was used to define fair and safe conditions for snow sports competitions. The frequency of unfair-unsafe conditions has increased over the last 50 years across the 21 OWG host locations. The probability of unfair-unsafe conditions increases under all future climate change scenarios. In a low emission scenario aligned to the Paris Climate Agreement, the number of climate reliable hosts remains almost unchanged throughout the twenty-first century (nine in mid-century, eight in late century). The geography of the OWG changes radically if global emissions remain on the trajectory of the last two decades, leaving only one reliable host city by the end of the century. Athletes expressed trepidation over the future of their sport and the need for the sporting world to be a powerful force to inspire and accelerate climate action.
... Similarly, what makes the British Open Golf the most attractive tournament across the three locations and across the three sports within the United Kingdom? Vierhaus (2018) argued that the 'Olympic effect' on tourism demand could last up to 20 years as the destination image of the host city/country continues to attract foreign visitors. The impact of an annual sporting event over time is yet another area of research that deserves further study. ...
Hosting sports events to attract international tourists is a common policy practised by many host governments. Hosting mega-sports events like the Olympics is said to leave a legacy that could impact the attractiveness of a country/city in the long term. However, the opportunity to host these mega-events is limited and expensive. This study considers the economic impact of hosting annual international sporting events, specifically the extent to which Formula 1, ATP Tennis and PGA Golf can attract international tourists. Using monthly data from 1998 to 2018, we show that the effect differs from one sport to another within a country and the same sport across countries. Hosting the Formula 1 is most effective for Canada but has no significant impact in Australia and the United Kingdom. ATP Tennis and PGA Golf have a significant impact on at least two countries. Policy-makers must consider carefully the sport that gives the best bang-for-the-buck.
... 22 Although there are problems with the exact measurement, many scholars still believe mega-events have a positive influence both on tourism and commerce. 23 Numerous factors influence the future influx of tourists to a city which organizes such an event: ...
Kraków was one of the cities which withdrew from the 2022 winter Olympics bidding process. It dropped its bid after residents voted against the local authorities’ plan. The games were to be organized together with Slovakia. The initial positive public reception was based on the assumption that the games might bring in investment, boost the economy and increase tourism. The opposition against Krakow’s bid quickly grew, reaching its peak in late 2013 and early 2014. The emergence and modus operandi of the anti-Olympic movement, which ultimately ended the bid, attracted the attention of Polish media. Critics raised the huge costs and the question of sports facilities which would have little use after the games. The group Kraków Against the Olympics called for a referendum, which demonstrated that the majority of the voters rejected the idea of organizing the games. Local and national media criticism, which grew following the bid committee’s actions, contributed to the large-scale public opposition.
... Large-scale sporting events, such as the OG, FIFA World Cups, Euro Cups, Super Bowls, etc., are considered the main drivers that contribute to promoting tourism and creating an economic impact for the city [80][81][82]. These events create enormous interest not only among sport fans, but also with the general population, who also want to be part of the experience of these events [83]. Therefore, having enough well-trained and motivated volunteers turns out to be critical not only to guarantee the success of a sporting event [84], but also for the tourist promotion of the city that hosts the event. ...
Understanding the future intentions of individuals who are part of a sport organization is a critical step for the success and the accomplishment of the goals of such organizations, particularly for sporting events that highly depend on the work of volunteers. Therefore, it is important to determine which factors motivate an individual to volunteer, as well as the intentions volunteers have to continue volunteering for sporting events or other similar organizations. This study conducted a systematic review of literature on studies that have examined the motivation and future intentions of volunteering in sporting events. The PRISMA methodology was used to develop this review. It included 30 studies from 2007 to 2020, and all the studies examined these two constructs using different types of quantitative methodologies. Moreover, most of these studies were conducted by scholars in the United States and Australia, and the VMS-ISE was the most used instrument for collecting data. Many of the studies did not include a theoretical framework relating motivation and future intentions to other constructs. The results of this systematic review provide new insights regarding the state of studies that have examined future intentions related to volunteering in sporting events, particularly regarding how to plan future investigations of volunteers’ motivation and future intention in the context of sporting events.
... Hence, tourism development has been identified as a major means of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda which strives to achieve economic, social, and environmental sustainability across the globe by 2030. 1 As far as the impacts of international tourism development on economic growth are concerned, the international tourism industry's contribution to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was worth approximately 2.9 trillion US dollars (WTTC 2019). Besides, it is hypothesized that tourism, in general, drives economic growth within the host countries by boosting the national income level (Wu et al. 2018), generating employment (L opez and Arreola 2019), triggering investments (Vierhaus 2019), and diversifying the export baskets (Petrova et al. 2018). Therefore, the significant role of tourism development in sustaining economic growth cannot be overlooked; accordingly, the expansion of the international tourism industry is acknowledged as a major catalyst international tourism industry. ...
This study aims to evaluate the impacts of international tourism development and green technology innovation on economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in the top 10 GDP countries between 1995 and 2018. Our preliminary findings reject the preposition of data normality, which instigate us to apply a novel method of moments quantile regression. The overall results suggest that international tourism development facilitates economic growth and increases carbon dioxide emissions asymmetrically across the different levels of economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions. Specifically, the economic growth impacts are relatively large for the comparatively more developed nations while the adverse environmental impacts are relatively larger for the comparatively less-polluted nations; thus, the tourism led-economic growth hypothesis is verified. On the other hand, green technology innovation is found to facilitate economic growth and mitigate carbon dioxide emissions, especially in the context of the relatively more developed and polluted economies.
... Hosting of WC 2014 brought more than 1 million new visitors where the advancements of the Argentinian national team caused nearly a quarter on the increase. In the study of Vierhaus (2019), the eff ect is examined deeply to conclude that there is no evidence of a long-term rise in international arrivals. Barreda et al. (2017) focused on the hotel performance during 2014 WC with emphasis on revenue management. ...
Th is paper focuses on the impact of hosting of IIHF World Championship on the local hotel market using
the case of Prague (IIHF World Championship 2015) and Bratislava (IIHF World Championship 2011).
Many previous studies were focused on the impact of hosting mega sports and cultural events on destination
perception and visit rate during and after the event, perception of hosting these events by residents or the eff ect
on the local economy. Using unique daily empirical data collected from 95 Prague hotels and 25 Bratislava
hotels, key fi ndings of this study show lack of long-run positive impact but a high short-run (immediate)
eff ect. In the case of Prague, the main increase of market performance can be identifi ed during the fi nal stage
of the tournament, mainly in selling room rates; for Bratislava, the signifi cant eff ect was determined during
the whole tournament, and the entire market never reached the same level of performance. Th e study shows
the need to examine these eff ects further, emphasizing more variables like seasonality and market segmentation, revenue management, and destination management.
... This author designs the "portfolio approach" to show the hierarchy of the four categories of events and displays the four brackets of events in a pyramid from high value and high tourist demand (mega events) to low value and low tourist demand (local events). Mega events such as the FIFA World Cup or the Olympic games (Duignan et al., 2020;Zouni et al., 2020) attract an enormous amount of money and a large number of spending tourists (Peeters et al 2014;Vierhaus, 2019;Wood and Meng, 2020), affect the tourism development (Lepp and Gibson 2011) and initiate a long-lived name of the hosting countries (Walker et al., 2013). Mega events are not only restricted to sports, they can include music events such as Coachella, world fairs such as Expos, or, as argued in this paper, royal weddings. ...
This article fills a void in the literature by investigating the impacts of royal weddings—arguably the grandest and the most iconic of public ceremonies involving royals—on destination-level brands. The direct and short-term effects of royal families and indeed the direct effect of seminal events involving the royals on destination-level accommodations and tourism service providers are more somewhat obvious. However, the more intriguing question and the one which we are more concerned with is: do royal weddings leave a more enduring legacy on the local tourism industry? The engagement announcement and the wedding date produce significant positive increases in the valuation of the home country’s tourism firms. Important managerial implications are derived in line with the long-term impact of unique events on tourism firms’ performance and the transference of brand knowledge from the destination to the companies is effective.
... During the buildup to World Cup 1994, it was estimated that the event would attract 50 million foreign visitors to the United States who would spend 100 billion (U.S.) dollars (Gibson, 1995). Back in 1994 in Los Angeles, the World Cup generated a total economic profit of 623 million dollars (U.S.) alone during the final that went directly into the metropolitan economy (Vierhaus, 2018). Nowadays, major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup, Super Bowl, and other championships have become powerful tourism attractions in themselves -making a very positive contribution to the tourism image of the host destination. ...
... Professional sport has gone global -similarly to our economic system (Thibault 2009;András and Havran 2014). It requires ever more support: gigantic infrastructure, either for showcasing high-level practice or providing mainstream entertainment; thus, in this way it resembles mass tourism and hyper-merchandising (Vrondou 2017;Vierhaus 2019). We have entered an era in which sport is treated as a potential means of making a profit. ...
The aim of this study is to define the concept of sustainability as it applies to one of the most competitive and accelerated subsystem of human activity, elite sport (or professional sport) to construct a robust understanding of it. Based on qualitative research with Hungarian Olympic athletes, we created an elite-sport-based Sustainable Sport questionnaire with 23 statements to test and map emerging topics related to elite sport. Revealed elements of Sustainable Sport include (1) future orientation, (2) community, (3) decommodification, and (4) a redefined concept of performance. This definition reflects the problems of sport particularly, and (hypothetically) of society and the economy in general. It points toward both environmental sustainability (strong sustainability) and enhanced wellbeing and may serve as a broader guide to human activity.
... contributed to this dramatic development. As for other aspects, hosting increased greatly international tourism to Beijing before and after 2008, regardless of the effect of the global financial crisis [17], even above the expectation of tourism professionals [18]. The publicity and international exposure of Beijing benefited international trade [19] and promoted political diplomacy [20]. ...
... Urban development was evaluated in 14 studies [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73], from wide diverse angles, considering the progress that SMEs may bring to the urban centers where they take place and stressing how they may fail to deliver positive legacies, especially in developing countries. Tourism [74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83] receives special attention as a specific activity that is greatly boosted with a large number of travelers attending the events; transportation [20,[84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91], one part of urban development, is also placed under the light because SME organizers address how transportation systems can be revamped or redesigned under the boost of SMEs. ...
Hosting a mega-event such as the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup is a defining moment for Qatar, a country that is in transition, small in size and population, and rich in natural gas reserves. It is a unique opportunity to host a universal event and leave a sustainable positive legacy for the country. However, the preparation, execution, and after-effects of such events are challenging initiatives with significant long-term impacts on the economy, society, and environment in the hosting country and nearby region. This study addresses the intersection between mega sports events and sustainability, to systematically compare and learn from past mega-events and apply that to the case of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The Qatari bid proposed a new FIFA Men’s World Cup (WC) spatial compact model around just one city area and the goal of achieving the first carbon-neutral WC. Herein, the challenges, opportunities, and progress in this scenario are evaluated accordingly, showing that local organizers are applying green technologies, urban development concepts, and strongly upholding the idea of legacies based on the Qatar National Vision 2030, which envisions sustainable development of the country. However, additional work is still needed to reduce environmental impacts and on several reported social issues.
Відзначено, що Олімпійські Ігри, як найбільша та найпрестижніша мегаспортивна подія у світі, сприймаються як каталізатор у розвитку туризму. Розглянуто їхню здатність створювати високу популярність для приймаючих міст і можливість залучати туристів ще довго після проведення Ігор. Звернута увага на оновлення інфраструктури туристичного сектору приймаючих міст, покращення туристсько-рекреаційних послуг, запуск нових туристичниз продуктів та застосування маркетингових стратегій. Ключові слова: олімпійський туризм, Олімпійські ігри, історія, розвиток, економіка.
Recent opposition to Olympic bids in American cities underscores some residents’ disapproval of their cities hosting mega-events. In this study, I test whether partisanship plays a role in residents’ support for a local Olympics bid using survey data from Houston, Texas in 2001 and Colorado statewide surveys from 2022 and 2023. I find that Republicans and conservatives were indeed less supportive of using public funds for the Houston 2012 bid. However, the Colorado 2022 survey indicates Republicans were more supportive of Denver entering a host bid. To test whether explicitly priming residents to consider public spending activates partisanship, respondents of the 2023 Colorado survey received one of two versions of the Olympics bid question, the second of which explicitly mentions spending public funds to win a bid. Results demonstrate that interacting partisanship with the public spending treatment indeed leads to less support for such projects, particularly among Republicans and independents.
Purpose
This study aims to examine whether sport companies that promote gender equality through femvertising, an advertising trend that empowers women and confronts gender stereotypes, actually support women’s rights with institutionalized approaches to challenge gender issues. Some sport brands even have won awards for their femvertising efforts, however, not all of them have modified their policies and programs to support gender equality. Sport femvertising can be a new area for CSR-washing and this study investigated this potential.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing a content analysis, this study compared sport brands' (award-winning vs non-award-winning) level of engagement in internal and external CSR activities regarding gender equality. Sport brands’ CSR attempts and number of women in leadership positions were analyzed through companies’ CSR reports, annual reports and websites.
Findings
Only few differences between two groups (award-winning vs non-award-winning) of sport brands were observed regarding their gender equality CSR engagement. In some cases, non-award-winning sport brands had a greater percentage of women in leadership and practiced more internal gender equality CSR.
Originality/value
This paper provides valuable information about the potential of femvertising as an advertisement, as well as CSR strategy. Results of this study broaden our understanding of how sport companies embraced this advertising/CSR technique and the repercussions. Findings provide guidance for sport marketers who seek to improve their brand image through femvertising.
UEFA EURO 2020 is the first multi‐hosting mega‐event developed on the entire continent. Often, mega‐events concentrated in one place have turned out to have a modest, or adverse, economic impact due to high costs. Therefore, the ex‐post assessment of the local impact of the four matches played in Rome as a mega‐event is an interesting case study. To this end, we use a Computable General Equilibrium model based on the Lazio regional Social Accounting Matrix. We estimate a significant Gross Domestic Product multiplier at around 1.45. Furthermore, in terms of employment, the event generates an additional net volume equivalent to 9762 full‐time jobs per year.
Mega eventos esportivos como a copa do mundo mobilizam bilhões de pessoas, seja física ou virtualmente. Logo, a hospedagem desses eventos oferece a chance de os países exercerem seu soft power, além de aquecer as economias locais. A copa do mundo de 2026 possui um formato inédito, envolvendo os três países da América do Norte. Entretanto, por vezes, os países candidatos a sediá-los superestimam os benefícios futuros, desconsiderando a real dimensão dos custos associados. Entre os setores mais diretamente favorecidos nesses países está o de turismo. Assim sendo, este estudo tem por objetivo verificar se o anúncio da escolha dos países sedes copa do mundo de 2026 impacta positivamente o retorno das ações do seu setor de turismo. Essa análise se dá por meio de um estudo de evento, no qual a data de anúncio da escolha dos países sede é em 13 de junho de 2018. Os resultados não confirmam a hipótese principal do estudo, uma vez que os pregões na bolsa de valores apresentam um retorno acumulado anormal negativo. Porém, além da confirmação da hipótese de eficiência de mercado, esta pesquisa oferece a oportunidade de empresas e países refletirem sobre as projeções de investimentos e receitas, no momento da sua candidatura.
Mega-events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cups pose major financial and management risks to the public sector. To better understand and anticipate these risks, this paper examines the determinants of revenues, costs, and profitability of these events. In a longitudinal analysis of 43 events between 1964 and 2018, our study found a positive correlation between a host country's GDP per capita with both the revenues and costs of these mega-events. While GDP is not correlated with profitability, greater economic freedom is, suggesting that countries with less government intervention, regardless of their wealth, produce better financial results.
Building the relationship between marathon events and tourism is a significant strategy for the local governments. However, there has been little agreement on the effect of city marathon events on local tourism performance. Therefore, this research gap is addressed by providing empirical evidence for the effect of city marathon events on local tourism performance. First, the paper analyzes the theoretical mechanism of the effect of city marathon events on tourism from three aspects: the preliminary effect before marathon events, the agglomeration effect during marathon events, and the legacy effect after marathon events. Second, taking the city marathon events in China as a quasi-natural experiment, the paper uses the Difference-in-Difference model to identify the effect of the marathon events on tourism based on the panel data of 50 major tourist cities from 2010 to 2017. The results indicate that city marathon events significantly boost local tourism performance. These research findings are further confirmed by performing various robustness checks.
The purpose of this chapter is to explore, discuss, and analyze the roles of nation branding, country image, and related fields (Buhmann & Ingenhoff, 2015; Fan, 2010) through the evolution of the FIFA World Cup. Over 3.5 billion people, more than half of the world’s population above the age of 4, watched the 2018 FIFA World Cup (2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, 2018). Four years later, beIN Media Group, the Qatari-based official broadcaster of Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup, reported over five billion accumulated views (beIN Sports, 2022). Football is the most practiced sport in the world (Woods & Butler, 2021), and the organizing body that regulates it is the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), with the World Cup being the crown jewel. According to the official global broadcast and audience summary (2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, 2018), over 1.1 billion watched at least part of the final between France and Croatia having 884.37 million in-home TV viewers and 231.82 million out-of-home and (or) digital-only viewers. At least 10 games in the tournament were viewed live by an average of at least a quarter of a billion live audience (2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, 2018), and all of the last three FIFA World Cup Finals had over half a billion viewers (Richter, 2020). Just for comparison, the 2019 Super Bowl, the most viewed annual TV programming in the USA, had a global rating of 160 million viewers, significantly less than some of the group state matches in Russia (2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, 2018; Richter, 2020). The only event comparable to the exposure and popularity of the FIFA World Cup is the Summer Olympic Games (OG), as according to the International Olympic Committee (2016), “half of the world’s population” watched the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, reaching a global audience of 3.2 billion through television, 1.3 unique users through digital platforms of rights-holding broadcasters, and having 4.4 billion video views (International Olympic Committee, 2020). The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, followed by the 2018 FIFA World Cup, are considered a pivotal point in Vladimir Putin’s strategy to brand Russia as a global powerhouse as strategic way to achieve imperialist goals. International media and scholars frame countries, regimes, and governments who use sports to launder their reputation from human rights violations as sportswashing (Boykoff, 2022a; Chadwick, 2018, 2022a). While the term pertains mostly to authoritarian regimes, democratic countries have been accused of sportswashing as well (Boykoff, 2022a). Russia is not the first or last to use the FIFA World Cup for soft power and foreign policy goals (Brannagan & Rookwood, 2016; Wolfe, 2020). Countries, cities, and communities have been using sports to achieve social, political, and economic goals, by improving their countries’ images (Dubinsky, 2019a). With football being the most popular sports in the world (Woods & Butler, 2021) and with such a significant international audience, the FIFA World Cup embodies ample opportunities for hosting and participating countries.
Di fronte alle controversie che circondano i Giochi Olimpici (GO), si va verso una maggiore integrazione delle problematiche locali, in termini economici, sociali e ambientali. Associare l’accoglienza di un simile evento alle politiche di rigenerazione urbana sembra essere un modo per inserirli in un periodo progettuale più lungo, oltre che per nutrirne la memoria. Presentati quali motori di trasformazione, contribuiscono a promuovere questi spazi reinvestiti e riqualificati, che meglio corrispondono all’immagine della città globale competitiva. Lo sviluppo delle strategie turistiche scaturisce da questa promozione territoriale, e si configura come uno degli sbocchi economici della transizione post-industriale. In contrappunto, il riuso degli edifici industriali alimenta l’immagine di un’eredità positiva e duratura per i Giochi Olimpici, come inneschi per il rinnovamento di aree dismesse in crisi – come si può evincere dalla narrazione olimpica ufficiale. Attraverso l’analisi di tre casi di studio, questo articolo si propone di identificare come lo sviluppo del turismo si inserisce in queste strategie che collegano il patrimonio industriale e il patrimonio olimpico.
Current research on the impacts of mega events have focused on the residents of the host destination despite the potential spillover effects of the impacts from the host destination to neighboring communities. This study adopts a mixed method approach to investigate the views of non-host residents from the five major cities (i.e., Qiqihar, Harbin, Mudanjiang, Jiamusi, and Daqing) in neighboring Heilongjiang province, a tier-one winter destination in China that is expected to benefit from the spillover effects of the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the relevance of mega events for non-host tier-one destinations, and by providing policymakers with insights into economic, socio-cultural, environmental, tourism development, knowledge development, and residents’ quality of life considerations that are relevant for garnering the support of residents beyond the host destination.
Mega-sport events continue to attract interest from potential hosts around the world. The belief is that these events bring the host city and country not only prestige but also economic benefits, notably tourism. A decade ago, Fourie and Santana-Gallego (2011) published a seminal paper that defined a gravity model for tourism demand to estimate the impact of six mega-sport events on international tourism for the period 1995–2006. This paper updates and expands their analysis by adding more observations (for the period 1995–2019), more events (eleven mega-sport events), testing new hypotheses and by using more advanced econometric methods. New results confirm some earlier findings, question others and reveal that, because of the selection panel's preference for developed countries to host mega-sport events, the impact of these events on inbound tourism is likely to be smaller in future.
Tourism demand and its determining factors have been extensively explored over the past decades. Traditionally, the study of tourism demand modeling had focused on the use of time series models and forecasting. Nonetheless, during the last years the literature has revived the approach of gravity models, centered on structural dimension as opposed to dynamic factors. This survey aims to provide a useful overview and detailed information that discipline the existing literature and help future researchers about this field. To do so, this study reviews 143 key published papers that apply a gravity equation framework to tourism demand revealing that it has been used mainly in the context of bilateral tourist movements. Results show how, although the list of determining variables of tourist flows can be very large, GDP, population and distance are the most preponderant ones. Moreover, there are important challenges to be addressed by researchers in terms of empirical application of structural gravity models to tourism.
The first edition of Olympic Cities, published in 2007, provided a pioneering overview of the changing relationship between cities and the modern Olympic Games. This substantially revised and enlarged third edition builds on the success of its predecessors. The first of its three parts provides overviews of the urban legacy of the four component Olympic festivals: the Summer Games; Winter Games; Cultural Olympiads; and the Paralympics. The second part comprisessystematic surveys of seven key aspects of activity involved in staging the Olympics: finance; place promotion; the creation of Olympic Villages; security; urban regeneration; tourism; and transport. The final part consists of nine chronologically arranged portraits of host cities, from 1936 to 2020, with particular emphasis on the six Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games of the twenty-first century. As controversy over the growing size and expense of the Olympics, with associated issues of accountability and legacy, continues unabated, this book’s incisive and timely assessment of the Games’ development and the complex agendas that host cities attach to the event will be essential reading for a wide audience. This will include not just urban and sports historians, urban geographers, event managers and planners, but also anyone with an interest in the staging of mega-events and concerned with building a better understanding of the relationship between cities, sport and culture. © 2017 Selection and editorial matter: John R. Gold and Margaret M. Gold.
In this paper, we explore the costs and benefits of hosting the Olympic Games. On the cost side, there are three major categories: general infrastructure such as transportation and housing to accommodate athletes and fans; specific sports infrastructure required for competition venues; and operational costs, including general administration as well as the opening and closing ceremony and security. Three major categories of benefits also exist: the short-run benefits of tourist spending during the Games; the long-run benefits or the "Olympic legacy" which might include improvements in infrastructure and increased trade, foreign investment, or tourism after the Games; and intangible benefits such as the "feel-good effect" or civic pride. Each of these costs and benefits will be addressed in turn, but the overwhelming conclusion is that in most cases the Olympics are a money-losing proposition for host cities; they result in positive net benefits only under very specific and unusual circumstances. Furthermore, the cost–benefit proposition is worse for cities in developing countries than for those in the industrialized world. In closing, we discuss why what looks like an increasingly poor investment decision on the part of cities still receives significant bidding interest and whether changes in the bidding process of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will improve outcomes for potential hosts.
We examine the macroeconomic effects of bidding for the Olympic Games using panel data for 188 countries during the period 1950–2009. Our findings confirm that economies react to news shocks: investment, consumption, and output significantly increase 9 to 7 years before the actual event in bidding countries. Hosting countries also experience significant increases in investment, consumption, and output 5 to 2 years before the hosting of the Games. Mapping the Olympics into a macroeconomic model, we show that we can match our empirical findings if we assume that an Olympic bid represents news about increases in government investment.
Gravity models are widely used to study tourism flows. The peculiarities of the segmented international demand for agritourism in Italy is examined by means of novel approach: a panel data quantile regression. We characterize the international demand for Italian agritourism with a large dataset, by considering data of thirty-three countries of origin, from 1998 to 2010. Distance and income are major determinants, but we also found that mutual agreements and high urbanization rates in countries of origin are associated with larger flows of incoming tourists.
Climate conditions are recognised as an important determinant of tourism demand and consequently different pioneering studies have started to estimate the impact of climate change on tourism flows. However, the lack of data concerning domestic tourism demand has motivated that the majority of studies focuses on international tourism flows or considers domestic trips as the alternative to the international ones. This paper investigates the impact of temperature on destination choice decisions in the context of domestic tourism in Spain. Using a data set that comprises Spanish domestic trips from 2005 to 2007 and applying a gravity model for regional data, results confirm climate as an important factor in determining domestic tourism flows. Moreover, a simulation exercise concerning an increase in the mean temperatures of the Spanish provinces is undertaken. Findings show that while colder provinces in the north of Spain would benefit from rising temperatures, warmer provinces in the south would experience a decrease in the frequency of trips there.
Although there is growing awareness of the relationship between hosting megasporting-events and destination image, there is little empirical evidence documenting what images people hold before an event. The purpose of this study was to investigate the images young Americans hold of China both as a tourist destination and as the host of the 2008 Olympic Games. Specifically, the relationships among destination image, travel intentions, and tourist characteristics were explored. A total of 350 college students were surveyed before the close of the Athens Olympic Games. Overall, the respondents perceived China and the Beijing Olympic Games positively. Destination image was significantly (p < .05) predictive of the intention to travel to China and the Olympic Games. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that destination image partially mediated the relationship between past international travel experience and intention to travel. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed with a view to promoting China as a tourist destination and the host of the Olympic Games.
Hosting major sport events can cause positive shifts in tourism demand on a long-term basis, but the additional revenues might not counterbalance the investment costs that are required of the host destination. Whether positive shifts have actually occurred cannot be measured solely by counting the additional number of tourists. Increases might also come from positive shifts in supply. Megaevents require expensive investments in sport facilities, as well as in nonsport city-related infrastructure. These investments must fit into the city's long-term plan to make the event economically successful. The demand from tourists can subsidize the production of goods and services that are characterized by the advantages of economies of scale. This provides local residents with goods and services that they otherwise could have only consumed outside the region. Many of the benefits from sport events fall into the category of public goods. This represents a rationale for governmental funding if those who benefit are driven by free-rider incentives. The prospect of governmental funding, however, provides motives to exaggerate the socioeconomic value of the events. This complicates thejob of deciding which events to support and by how much.
Legacies have become a key rationale underpinning the bidding process for hosting mega-events. These long-term effects are deemed to hold benefits and costs, and measurement is important. However, there is limited theory or empirical evidence on legacy impacts. In this article, the literature on legacies of mega-events is reviewed and event tourism isolated to develop an interdisciplinary conceptual model to measure tourism legacies, and develop propositions on measurement issues. This paper develops a framework of key indicators, propositions and measures to evaluate socio-economic legacies, which will support event organizers and decision makers to formulate policies for improving event legacies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A recent study finds that Olympic Games host countries experience significant positive, lasting effects on exports. They interpret their results as an indication that countries use the hosting of such events to signal openness and competitiveness. The authors challenge these empirical findings on the grounds that a comparison of structurally different and nonmatching groups of countries might suffer from a selection bias. The authors demonstrate that with an appropriate matching and treatment methodology, the significant Olympic effect disappears.
This article examines the making of Olympic legacies. All cities bidding to host the Olympics after 2012 are now required to describe sports and non-sports legacies in their bid books, and this will become a consideration in awarding the Games. A review of the literature on the impacts of hosting the Games and on conceptualizing Olympic legacies shows that both have advanced in recent years. Yet an examination of the aftermath of hosting the Olympics in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City reveals that claiming Olympic legacies remains difficult given the political decisions made early in the bidding process and the local geography of locating Olympic facilities and venues outside the host city itself.
The 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan was the first football World Cup Finals ever to take place in Asia and be co-hosted by two countries. Drawing on data provided by the national and local organizing committees, football’s world governing institution, local and international media accounts and first-hand observations made before, during and after the event, the article discusses the contrast between discourses that forecast and described the actual impacts of the 2002 World Cup on its host societies. In particular three aspects are discussed: the specific regional political economy of the 2002 World Cup; the role of sports mega-events in identity construction and promotion; and how such events are both constituted by and constitutive of globalization. While a largely sceptical view of the economic impact informs our article, our conclusion explains the gap between forecast and actual impacts as indicative of the power struggle for determining the meaning of mega-events between different agents.
The propensity score is the conditional probability of assignment to a particular treatment given a vector of observed covariates. Both large and small sample theory show that adjustment for the scalar propensity score is sufficient to remove bias due to all observed covariates. Applications include: (i) matched sampling on the univariate propensity score, which is a generalization of discriminant matching, (ii) multivariate adjustment by subclassification on the propensity score where the same subclasses are used to estimate treatment effects for all outcome variables and in all subpopulations, and (iii) visual representation of multivariate covariance adjustment by a two- dimensional plot.
Mega sports events provide organisers with a unique opportunity to modify the international image of the host country. The article tracks and analyses the destination image change of travelling New Zealand football fans as a result of having attended the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The event itself, rather than team support or destination attractiveness was the main motivation to travel. The article follows a longitudinal approach into the subject, methodologically distinct and advanced from previous studies due to its 'pre-then-post' approach. Findings from the surveys and interviews show a significant improvement of the host country's image as a result of respondents' direct experience. In particular, respondents thought of Germany as a less expensive, more friendly and multi-cultural place. Insights into the character and dimensions of this change are provided, reflecting on 'soft' and 'hard' factors of destination image. The analysis of results defines which aspects of sports supporters' perceptions go beyond the pure sports experience. This offers avenues for future research into the link between mega sports events, travelling fans' host country experience and tourism destination promotion.
This paper focuses on the legacy of mega sport events. First, the concept of legacy is defined before the problems of measuring and forecasting legacy are discussed. Benchmarking and the use of macro data do not correctly reveal legacy. Hence a bottom-up approach is introduced which identifies the event legacy by evaluation of 'soft' and 'hard' event-related changes in a host city. These changes are defined as 'event-structures' (infrastructure, knowledge, image, emotions, networks, culture). Many of them change the quality of location factors of the host city in the long-term. The benefits/costs through the transformation of the host city are the legacy of a mega sport event. Here a particular focus is put on tourism legacy.
While the Summer Olympics is arguably unparalleled in terms of its scale and the potential magnitude of its impacts on tourism in the host city/country, the amount of research aimed at evaluating those impacts is surprisingly limited. Some of the possible reasons for this are explored and the need for a more systematic approach to tourism impact evaluation is emphasized. Apart from accountability considerations associated with the need to demonstrate a dividend from public investment in the event, such research is critical for ensuring that lessons about approaches to more effectively leveraging tourism benefits from future events are derived from the Olympic experience. The Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism's Sydney Olympics Tourism Impacts Study aims to address this objective.
Mega-events like the Winter Oympics are regarded as having a significant economic impact onthe region hosting the events as well as affecting its long-term development. This was the basis for Lillehammer in Norway to host the Olympic Winter Games in 1994. In this pa.per previous research on mega-events is reviewed, the experiences of the Lillehammer Olympics are examined, and the value of hosting a mega-event as a strategy for regional development is discussed.For some time the economic impacts caused by the Olympics were very significant, and major parts of regional industries have been affected in one way or another. However, the Olympics have mostly caused an industrial intermezzo. With the exception of significant growth in the tourism industry,the long-term economic benefits for the region have turned out to be fairly modest and out of proportion to the huge costs of hosting the Games.
International tourism legacies are a key justification for hosting the Olympics. Although strong theoretical arguments have been made to support the tourism legacy, empirically measuring the effect has been problematic. Strong arguments for enhancing the legacy effect through the proper leveraging of the Olympics by means such as positive media coverage exist. This research empirically tests for the legacy effect and whether leveraging the Olympics by exposing potential tourists to more media enhances the legacy effect. The data used in this research are monthly international air passenger arrivals for nine Olympic host cities. A time series methodology that controls for problems noted in prior studies such as pre-existing trends, external events, seasonality, and crowding out is incorporated. The results show little evidence to support the legacy effect in the short run.
Mega-sporting events such as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup are expensive affairs. Host countries often justify the spending required to stage these events by predicting that mega-events will draw large numbers of tourists. This paper analyzes monthly foreign tourist arrivals into Brazil between 2003 and 2015 and finds that the 2014 FIFA World Cup increased foreign tourism by roughly 1 million visitors. This number far exceeded expectations, but we show that roughly a quarter of this increase in foreign tourism was caused by the fortuitous advancement of Argentina's national team, and potential hosts should not count on the event to consistently produce out-sized tourism figures. We conclude that on-field results can greatly influence FIFA World Cup tourism. (JEL L83, F14)
The purpose of this study is to present the current state of scientific knowledge on the Winter Olympic Games (2000 to present-day) and their urban and tourism-related impacts. To achieve this, a scoping review was performed using established methodology. Of the 1694 English and French peer-reviewed sources identified from 14 different databases, 47 met the specific inclusion criteria and were retained for analysis. Findings were divided into three sections according to our objectives: (1) methodological profiles of the selected articles; (2) urban impacts; (3) tourism-related impacts. First, the reviewed sources – mainly qualitative – generally showed that mega-events such as the Winter Olympic Games are a catalyst for the urban renewal of host cities. However, these urban transformations must be part of a global scenario to ensure long-term viability. Although research shows that the Games represent an opportunity for the development of the tourism industry, the scoping review showed mixed results in terms of tourist flows and the enhancement of the city’s image. The concluding remarks identify the limitations of this study and offer opportunities and areas of research regarding the next Winter Games.
This article examines 147 variables’ potential to discriminate successful from unsuccessful Olympic bids. Our stepwise, rank-ordered logistic regression model includes 10 determinants supporting the contention that economic, political and sports/Olympic factors are important for winning the host city election. IOC members favour cities if more than 2/3 of the population support the bid, but disfavour bidding cities of fewer than 2.5 million inhabitants and bids lacking a sufficient number of existing stadiums. Hosts are characterized by larger markets and higher medium-term growth economies. Olympic bids that follow a political liberalization are rewarded with additional votes.
This article highlights an aspect of mega-events that has been neglected: the changing composition of tourist arrivals during and after the event. The change happens because, in the FIFA World Cup, a quota of countries participate from each continent and this opens up new tourism markets. We show that the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa had a smaller growth effect on South Africa’s traditional tourism markets but attracted a large increase from nontraditional ones. However, the size of the effect, we find, is partly due to randomness: It depends on match results in the qualification phase of the tournament. We use a new long-run data set of tourism flows to South Africa and a gravity model for tourism flows and run counterfactual examples of play-off matches during the qualification phase to estimate how much more South Africa could have benefited had larger or richer countries qualified. We conclude that the random results of a few play-off games significantly affect the extent to which the World Cup benefits the host country’s economy.
One of the foremost impacts used to justify investment in hosting an Olympic and Paralympic Games has been their assumed impact on tourism. However, given the much wider range of socio-economic legacies now being sought from the Games, should tourism impacts remain a leading, or even a legitimate, justification for such investment? This paper explores this question through an exploration of legacy planning, strategy and outcomes for the London 2012 Games, which had the most wide-ranging and legacy ambitions of any Olympic and Paralympic Games to date. The extent to which London 2012 strategically planned for a wide range of socio-economic legacies is reviewed and the efficacy and legitimacy of London 2012's legacy strategy is analysed using programme theory and focusing on questions of attribution and additionality of claimed legacy outcomes. The paper finds that there appear to be genuinely additional legacy outcomes attributable to legitimate legacy strategies in only three areas: enhanced business capacity, additional tourism spending and the regeneration of East London, and thus these should be a particular focus for legacy strategy for future Games. It also finds that the politicisation of legacy led to a concern with seeking to demonstrate the appearance of legacy across as wide a range of socio-economic areas as possible, but that the vast majority of these legacy claims were not legitimate. This political concern is likely to mean that tourism will come to be seen as a less important part of Olympic and Paralympic legacy strategy, despite evidence showing that it is one of the few genuinely additional and legitimate legacy outcomes.
This paper assesses the outcomes of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, examining the costs and economic impacts of the event, the prospects for the long-term use of venues and infrastructure, and the attitudes of the global and the Russian population. Total costs were 12 billion at the time of the bid. Of this total, about 1.2 billion per year. The event also did not manage to improve the image of Russia in the world. Among the domestic population, support dropped over the seven years of its implementation, most notably among the local population.
Many countries compete for the opportunity to host the Olympics because of the resulting positive impacts. However, there are also high costs associated with hosting this event. The participants of this study provided insight on how the 2008 Olympics influenced Beijing's tourism industry. This study explores the impacts of hosting the renowned Olympic Games on the transformation of the host city from the supplier perspective. Beijing tourism industry professionals and Beijing residents were considered suppliers and interviewed for the purpose of this study. Collected data reveal that the city of Beijing rapidly developed because of the mega event. Suppliers including Beijing's tourism department, government organizations, hotels, and restaurants have changed their marketing strategies over time because of the impacts of the Olympics. Additionally, Beijing has shifted to promoting a new destination image: fashion and vitality. The present findings will help future host destinations better understand the impacts of hosting the Olympics. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Over recent years the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations have secured the right to host several major international sporting events. Growth in tourism from developed countries is crucial to turn these events into a successful strategy for economic development. In this paper we use monthly country-by-country arrival data toassess the impact of organising the FIFA 2010 World Cup on tourism in South Africa. We find that South Africa attracted around 220,000 extra arrivals from non-Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries during the event, and 300,000 over the entire year. These numbers are less than the predictions made by the organisers prior to the event andimply that the total cost per extra non-SADC visitor amounted to $13,000. © Theauthor 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved.
There is considerable ambiguity about what makes an event a mega-event. Intervening in this debate, this paper develops a definition and classification scheme for mega-events. On the basis of a review of existing definitions, it proposes four constitutive dimensions of mega-events: visitor attractiveness, mediated reach, costs and transformative impact. The paper develops indicators for each dimension and maps onto these four dimensions a sample of the latest editions of nine large events (Expo, Summer and Winter Olympics, Football World Cup, European Football Championship, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games, Universiade). From this, it develops a multi-dimensional, point-based classification scheme of large events according to size, distinguishing between major events, mega-events and the recently emerging class of giga-events. Concluding, it identifies the need for more systematic data on the size, costs and impacts of a broad range of large-scale events over time.
Using the 2010 FIFA World Cup event as a stimulus, this study measured the effect of international sporting events on country reputation over the longer (one-year) term. A nationally representative sample of more than 1200 US adults participated in the longitudinal study. Factor analysis of country reputation was conducted and findings are discussed in the context of the extracted factors. In addition, moderating variables including travel behavior, knowledge, information processing and information seeking were examined. Findings revealed that the increases in affection toward South Africa that were achieved directly after the World Cup deteriorated over the one-year time span after the event. Dimensions of leadership increased slightly after the World Cup and maintained that level in the longer term, while aspects of culture remained stable throughout. Analysis of moderating variables suggested that certain groups of Americans were more likely affected by the World Cup than the others. Implications for tourism marketers and country reputation managers are discussed.
International mega or hallmark events such as the Olympics and World Expo, are believed to help brand national and government images of the host country. Existing studies explain that mega-event images are transferrable to a host country and/or government. Yet, such an assumption has not been widely tested, or studied with country cases. Furthermore, while international mega events are assumed to target chiefly the international community for country branding purposes, there is reason to assert that they may just as much aim at domestic audiences for regime's political legitimization. By focusing on China's recently hosted three mega events – the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, this study addresses these issues.The analyses reveal that people are likely to associate event images, especially positive ones, with those of China and Chinese government. A set of presumably influential factors, which may either strengthen or weaken that association, are examined, showing that “people's involvement and participation in these events” are the most significant. The findings also verify that internationally oriented mega events can aim at the host country's internal audience. Indeed, solidifying its domestic legitimacy always seems to be an integral part of the Chinese government's strategy in pursuit of a favorable international image. Although exploratory, this study provides clues and fertile ground for further research on the relationship between international mega events and national and/or governmental image building, projection and branding.
This article reviews ‘event tourism’ as both professional practice and a field of academic study. The origins and evolution of research on event tourism are pinpointed through both chronological and thematic literature reviews. A conceptual model of the core phenomenon and key themes in event tourism studies is provided as a framework for spurring theoretical advancement, identifying research gaps, and assisting professional practice. Conclusions are in two parts: a discussion of implications for the practice of event management and tourism, and implications are drawn for advancing theory in event tourism.
This study investigates the impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on China's destination brand perception-in terms of destination image and personality-held by American leisure travelers. The results show that although American travelers' collective perception of China as a travel destination did not change substantially before and after the Games, various subgroups within this population appeared to have different levels of susceptibility to perception change during this process. Furthermore, the study confirmed that event media could influence respondents' destination perceptions. The findings emphasize the importance of media in image development, and market segmentation in international destination marketing. The results also illustrate the challenge of changing a destination's brand perception, particularly in long-haul source markets. © 2011 International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education.
We describe the theory and practice of real GDP comparisons across countries and over time. Version 8 of the Penn World Table expands on previous versions in three respects. First, in addition to comparisons of living standards using components of real GDP on the expenditure side, we provide a measure of productive capacity, called real GDP on the output side. Second, growth rates are benchmarked to multiple years of cross-country price data so they are less sensitive to new benchmark data. Third, data on capital stocks and productivity are (re) introduced. Applications including the Balassa-Samuelson effect and development accounting are discussed.
Decisions regarding appropriate investments in both the public and private sectors, as well as short-term marketing decisions, depend heavily on the accuracy of forecasts of tourism demand. This article reviews both the qualitative and quantitative approaches to demand forecasting in tourism and suggests that the two approaches combined produce more accurate forecasts.
Estimating a theoretical gravity model over a sixty-year period, from 1948 to 2009, I found an unexpected trend: the currency union impact on trade is decreasing over time. This result suggests that with trade and financial globalization currency unions become less and less important to promote trade.
The purposes of this study are to present a conceptual framework for identifying and understanding the long-term impacts of a mega-event on international travel to the host country and to apply a component of that conceptual framework in an analysis of international visitation to Korea as a result of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. Study results indicate (1) mega-events do have a long-term impact on the international tourism to the host country; (2) that impact is greatest in the year following the event and diminishes over time; and (3) in the case of Korea the value of the benefit realized in a three-year period is estimated to be $1.3 billion.
The 2010 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, one of the largest mega-sport events in the world, has stirred renewed interest in the benefits that a host country can derive from such events. While most predict a large increase in the number of tourist arrivals in South Africa during the event, recent international literature suggests that ex ante studies are often too optimistic. South Africa has played host to numerous mega-events since 1994. Using a time-series lagged regression model, we identify the increases in tourism numbers experienced for most such events, controlling for a number of variables, which are standard to the prediction of tourism flows. Smaller events, especially those held during the summer months, show little increase in tourist arrivals. We disaggregate tourism arrivals to show that, as expected, the number of tourists from participating countries tends to increase the most. Contrary to the findings revealed in the international literature, we find little evidence of between-country displacement. This lack of evidence may be as a result of off-season scheduling or because the relative size of such events reflects neither that of the FIFA World Cup nor that of the Olympic Games.
As cities compete for jobs and capital in the context of limited federal aid and increasing global economic competition, a new and potentially high-risk strategy for stimulating local economic growth has emerged. This strategy, called the mega-event strategy, entails the quest for a high-profile event to serve as a stimulus to, and justification for, local development. We examine how the mega-event strategy has played out in the three US cities with contemporary Olympic experience: Los Angeles (1984), Atlanta (1996), and Salt Lake City (2002). We analyze the approaches taken by these three cities to bidding for and staging an Olympic mega-event. Our comparison focuses on the decade long period that cities use to prepare to host the games. We conclude with a discussion of lessons learned and the policy implications of the mega-event strategy on urban politics.
The 1996 Olympics provided a number of unique opportunities for the City of Atlanta. Although most cities will not have an opportunity to host the Olympics, the Atlanta experience can provide important lessons for any city considering similar large-scale events. Clearly, the Olympics stimulated the local economy in the years leading up to the Games; they also were quite successful in promoting tourism and attracting business to the region. The city acquired a new stadium and other sports facilities. The Games also were an incentive to make a number of improvements in urban design and infrastructure improvements. However, the redevelopment of inner city neighborhoods that had originally been anticipated was never achieved. Reliance on private funding and a fragmented organizational structure were key factors that limited Atlanta's ability to use the Olympics as a vehicle for redevelopment.
Existing literature suggests that event and destination images could interact to influence sport tourism behaviours. Within an attitude-behaviour theoretical framework, this paper proposes and tests a theoretical model examining the interrelationships between sport event image, destination image, satisfaction with the event, past experience with the event and destination, intentions to revisit the destination and subsequent behaviours of sport tourists to revisit. A population of active sport tourists, whose primary trip purpose was to participate in a sport event, was used to test empirically the proposed model. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect panel data in two waves after the event's completion. Structural equation modelling results showed a significant impact of event image on destination image but not the opposite. Destination image and past experience with the destination significantly influenced intentions to revisit the destination for sport tourism activities, while intentions were a significant predictor of actual behaviour to revisit a destination for sport tourism activities. Implications for synergistic approaches are discussed for sport events and destinations.
This paper examines the impact of mega‐events such as the Olympic Games on tourism development in host territories. In the first part, we adopt a territorialisation approach to understand the relationship between the event and the host region. A mega‐event is conceived as a great chance to generate new territory as it produces both tangible and intangible legacies that remain after the event ends: renewal of facilities for hospitality and accommodation, better infrastructures, better training for people in the tourism business, and improvement in international visibility. These legacies can represent a platform for future tourism development if local policies demonstrate the ability to re‐territorialise a mega‐event’s temporary transforming effects on tourism into long‐lasting ones. The paper then focuses on the case of Torino 2006. Moving from an overview to recent tourism data, some considerations of the post‐event trends in the Olympic territory are proposed. Thus, the paper highlights several critical aspects for a re‐territorialisation of the Olympic legacies and for tourism policies that can sustain the positive effects of the event over the long term.
‘Mega‐events’, such as the Olympic Games, have emerged as an important tool of urban and regional renewal through their ability to justify redevelopment and enhancement, attract inward investment, promote tourism and create new images for host cities. This paper complements previous research into the urban effects of the Summer Games by focusing on the infrastructural legacy of hosting the Winter Games, 1924–2002. The discussion concentrates upon the growing intensity of the intra‐urban competition to host the event and identifies four phases in the changing infrastructural implications of staging the Games. As a component of urban and regional policy, the Winter Olympics present both major risks and clear opportunities for the effective transformation of host centres.
After hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics, the Norwegian national and local authorities expected a ‘big boom’ in tourism; the actual effects have been less than, and different from, the predictions, and 40% of the full-service hotels in Lillehammer have gone bankrupt. This paper compares ex ante theories and predictions with the ex post reality. Reference areas and time-series analysis are used to clarify the counterfactual and internal validity. International comparisons among Olympic hosts identify general patterns. The aim is to help planners of mega-events and other rare projects to improve their forecasting and decisions. Ex post studies can improve the quality of future ex ante impact assessment of unique projects, but it is important to clarify partial, interaction and cumulative effects. Also, much more careful market and cost-benefit studies are needed.
This paper outlines the key strategies used by the Australian Tourist Commission (ATC) in leveraging the Olympic Games to boost tourism to Australia. In 1995, the ATC established its Olympic Games Business Unit. The key elements of the pre-Games strategy were in developing joint-promotions, the establishment of a major media programme, working with TV broadcasters, and the setting up the Business Development Programme. Following the success of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, a twelve month post-Games strategy was operationalised. It has included tactical advertising in key markets, the use of direct marketing, working with key market segments such as the business tourism sector, and developing research to monitor the success of the strategy and tactics. The ATC strategy has also been recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a benchmark on how to maximise the benefits for both the Games and the host country.
The Olympic Games have emerged as a significant catalyst of urban change and can act as a key instrument of urban policy for their host cities. This paper reviews the effect of the Games on the built environment of the various cities which have acted as hosts in the modern Olympic period (1896-1996) and assesses the preparations now being made for the Games in Sydney in the year 2000. The review indicates that the Games have been increasingly used as a trigger for a wide range of urban improvements, although there have been considerable variations in the scale of infrastructural investment and in the public-private sector mix.