Mega-Event and Hallmark Event: Distinguishing Characteristics and Role in Tourism - Coursework Example

Mega-Event and Hallmark Event: Distinguishing Characteristics and Role in Tourism Name Tutor Unit Code Introduction The use of events in attracting masses has grown with countries and cities now fighting to host big events such as sporting activities and exhibitions. Also, the use of events features largely in most of today’s tourism literature from top tourism journals, monographs, school textbooks as well as practical instruction manuals. Researchers are putting greater effort in defining the character and coverage of event tourism. Still there is a realisation that events play a key role in promoting tourism destinations. The tourism sector contributes substantially to the overall state of a host destination by creating jobs directly and indirectly, attracting big infrastructural investment projects and enriching the people’s culture by interacting with people from other parts of the world Getz (2008: 403) Events exist in varying forms distinguishable mainly by size, volume and impact (such as political events, business events, social-cultural events, and private events, among others.). Also, the rationale for hosting events may differ. This paper looks at two major kinds of events: mega-events and hallmark events. The focus is on the events’ defining and differentiating features and their role in tourism. Mega Events A mega-event is a key cultural event with a huge popular appeal and universal reference. Moreover, mega-events are superficially irregular, remarkable, and mainly extra-large. They have the capacity to send out advertising messages to billions of the global population through mass advertisements through the internet, newspapers, televisions that have huge viewership. Therefore, mega-events pull huge numbers of visitors and are for the most part linked to image-making or developmental roles for the host destination. Mega-events put the host destination under the focus of the media. Getz (2008: 405) defines “mega events, by way of their size or significance, as those that yield amazingly high levels of tourism, media reporting, reputation, or economic impact for the host community, venue or organisation.” Today each year at least one place on earth hosts a mega-event such as the Olympic Games, or World Cups. Role of Mega Events in Tourism: A Case of Summer Olympics The remarkable nature mega-events is a proprietary means through which the neighbouring area derive positive as well as negative effects. The events have the capacity to transform host destinations to active tourist hot-spots with huge gains for the community for several generations to come. Mega-events influence the local economy by attracting international attention for the host destination. The dimension of these impacts has not been fully established, but scholars have attempted to work out the economic gains realised from hosting a mega-event ever since the 1980s. Generally, in the past ten years evidence shows apparent prospective gains, both in terms of direct economic gains plus the intangible gains including varied non-quantifiable benefits such as greater patriotism, public pride, and country image. A lot of host destinations have shown that the benefits to some extent overshadow the costs (Horne & Manzenreiter 2004: 190). Host destinations regularly perceive mega-events as viable profitable opportunities. The Summer Olympics is a top example of a mega-event. Cities all over the world keep bidding just to host the Summer Olympics. The staging of Summer Olympics appeals to different sectors of the host destination. The destinations have a one-time chance to promote their local commodities to the international audience, leverage new investments, influence export trade opportunities and boost the tourism sector of host country. These factors trigger off both corporate involvement and support from the community (Horne & Manzenreiter 2004: 193). The Summer Olympics attract the best and top professional athletes from all corners of the world mainly the legendary champions from Kenya, U.S.A, Jamaica and Ethiopia. Burbank (2002: 188) illustrates the power of mega-events to hook the fancy of media houses worldwide. From a tourism point of view, the manner in which host destinations make use of the massive media interest is very vital. Development of mass communication equipment including the authority of satellite T.V has pushed up the audience figures. A case in point is the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics that attracted a record of about 4 billion viewers globally. The numbers confirm the global reach of mega-events. They have come to be perceived as a supportive means for semi-peripheral societies to catch the fancy of a ‘CNN presence’ as a potential promoter of tourism. According to Getz (2008: 410), the American cities have placed great emphasis on sports events as a promoter of tourism and long-term source of revenue. The Summer Olympic Games to uplift the status of host destinations and drive development through sports and business and build a cultural bequest through cultural learning programmes. Getz (2008: 400) argues that, looking at mega-events from the tourism sector angle, they are very much respected as attractions, catalysts, place marketers and image-makers. He adds that host destinations have mostly proposed and implemented policies that uplift urban tourism. They consider the erection of convention centres, entertainment facilities restaurants and big hotels, as well as gigantic shopping malls. As a result, international tourism has gone up steadily with the increase in international mega-events. Many countries are influenced by nation branding and promotion as key factors that require them to pledge to host the Summer Olympics. Tourism destinations have been well positioned to host Summer Olympics Games as a promotion improvement strategy. Summer Olympics are as well seen as a helpful medium to market tourism products all over the world, generate business opportunities and inspire a feeling of self-importance and dignity amongst the local populace. Moreover, the public and private stakeholders are interested in boosting the brand component of sport to their destination promotion outline in a bid to promote the local economies (Burbank, 2002: 182). A number of studies have recommended that Summer Olympics may well be used by host destinations as a fresh approach. The games can be used as a means to revive the tourism sector and spur urban infrastructural development projects. With the impact of globalisation, the expansion of sports is more and more being seen as a piece of the host destination’s cultural and relaxation centre. They enhance place advertising and consumption-based economic growth through tourism (Horne & Manzenreiter 2004: 197). In the recent period of de-industrialisation, economic re-organisation and internationalisation, the endorsement of mega-events are a celebrated tourism promotional strategy. Host destinations use the events to implement big projects to revitalise, renew, and promote their standing and character. In the end, they draw new investments and refashion their tourism sector and economy. In this manner host destinations can spread out and stretch the possibilities for their tourism product and crack into new potential tourism markets. Getz (2008: 417) states that the global trend to the magnification of mega-events is for the most part as a result of the sharp rise in demand for particular tourist products. Hallmark Events Hallmark events are “major one-time or periodic events of limited duration, developed largely to boost the awareness, appeal and profitability of a tourism destination” (Ritchie & Beliveau 1974: 15). Hallmark events revolve around a key subject matter; they “serve to focus tourism and recreational planning on a specific period of the year”. The events are customarily attractive with huge public appeal. They provide the host destination with a competitive advantage. The recurrent nature of hallmark events facilitate a progressive build-up of awareness and repute and therefore can strategically overcome the seasonality problem. Hallmark events have an international appeal, but are of a much smaller scale in contrast to mega-events. Majority of the hallmark events involve sports or customary celebrations or both. Examples include, exhibitions, rugby sevens tournament, formula 1 grand prix, marathons, and tennis tournaments, among others. Role of Hallmark Events in Tourism: A Case of Rugby Sevens Tournament Hallmark events contribute significantly to the promotion of tourism. They lift the appreciation, appeal and lucrativeness of a tourism destination in the short- and/or long-term. Hallmark events’ uniqueness, fame, or well-timed connotation does generate great universal interest and draw public attention. They build the image of contemporary tourism. Hallmark events around the world have grown into important celebrations that involve comprehensive programming around the mainstay competition. They create a very much expanded appeal and P.R. that accelerates tourist activities (Getz 2008: 420). Hallmark events deliver the means, appeal, imagery, vigour, and place marketing in the host destination that echo what tourists who are attracted to. They therefore help to put into action the general event tourism goals, and have got to be hypothesised from the side of tourist experiences and the thinking of the event for prospective tourists. According to Getz (2005: 121), as a representation of the event tourism portfolio, hallmark events play an important and enduring role in supporting tourism. It is thus expected that hallmark events ought to have enough clout to attract tourists. The rugby sevens tournament is taken to be a top sporting event for cities that host the circuits all over the world. The game is of a fabulous standing and is associated with the media attention they appeal to that enables promotion of tourism. The rugby sevens tournament relentlessly create a centre of media attention and enter into the territory of the admired events. Ritchie and Beliveau (1974: 16) argues that hallmark events epitomise cherished customs that put across cultural insinuations and the distinctiveness of the host destination. The rugby sevens tournament has been closely associated with the culture of the city that hosts the circuit. One main cultural value connected to the rugby sevens tournament is the cheering fans in support of their different teams. For instance, the Australian (all blacks) sevens team is respected worldwide along with other teams such as Kenya that wield a great pull on fans. By and large, hallmark events are a magnet for tourists and in this manner they boost tourism. The rugby sevens circuit tournament has attracted tourists from all parts of the world across different cities such as Las Vegas, Adelaide, Hon Kong, Dubai, and Japan. Furthermore, hallmark events help reproduce a positive image of the host destination. The destination becomes co-branded with the hallmark event and their look becomes mutually reinforcing and inseparable. Adelaide is well known all over the world thanks to the rugby sevens tournament circuit hosted in the city. Hosting of the hallmark event invites broad brand management that lifts the level of event, and the host destination. The consideration of the hallmark event and the host destination appeals to all stakeholders including the attendees and the industry. This profiles the image of the host destination, leading to its affirmative awareness as a potential tourist travel destination. Many tourists prefer to visit Adelaide for the period of the 2-3 day event rugby sevens tournament circuit held there. With global media attention focused on the host city, even for a somewhat short interval, the promotional value is huge, and various destinations will use this fact alone to validate huge expenditure (Getz 2008: 417). Conclusion Events plays a key role in promoting a host destination. That’s why events have these days taken the centre stage in promoting tourism. Both mega-events and hallmark events such as the Summer Olympics and the rugby sevens tournament attract wide media coverage and universal attention. Host destinations employ such opportunities to advertise their tourist products and appeal to potential visitors sector (Getz 2008: 424). Event tourism has come to be quite common in the present day and has attracted attention particularly owing to the mega-events and the hallmark events. Even scholars have devoted more time to researching the events contribution to the host destination economy. Even though there is no confirmatory empirical proof of the direct economic gains from these events exceed the invested amounts, there are rewarding intangible benefits that can be quantified, especially tourism (Getz 2005: 117). References Burbank, M.J. 2002. Mega-events, Urban Development, and Public Policy. The Review of Policy Research, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 179-202. Getz, D. 2005. Event Management and Event Tourism. 2nd ed. Cognizant, New York. Getz, D. 2008. Event tourism: definition, evolution, and research. Tourism Management, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 403-428. Horne, J. and Manzenreiter, M. 2004. Accounting for Mega-events: Forecast and Actual Impact of the 2002 World Cup Finals on the Host Countries Japan/Korea. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 187-203. Ritchie, M.D. and Beliveau, D. 1974. Hallmark events: An evaluation of a strategic response to seasonality in the travel market. Journal of Travel Research, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 14-20. Read More