The Value of Hosting Events as a Strategy for Sustainable Destination Management - Coursework Example

School: Topic: The value of hosting events as a strategy for sustainable destination management Lecturer: Introduction Hosting is an organised presentation of an event, ceremony or program with the aim of drawing people together from different walks of lives (Kurtzman and Zauhar, 2007). Hosting of events normally takes place at a designated place, yielding to the relationship between event hosting and destination management. Adams and Parmenter (2012) explained destination management as the practice of using extensive local knowledge, expertise and resources to providing ground service to bring out the unique identity of a destination. Destination management can therefore be seen as a larger concept that embodies hosting because hosting requires destination management to implement. Lately, academicians and professionals in the area of destination management have become concerned about the creation of long-lasting identity of destinations based on effective management. This quest is what has yielded the concept of sustainable destination management. Destination management can therefore be said to have taken place when the professional ground service provided for a particular destination can be considered as having long-lasting impact on the destination rather than a short-lived impact (Archer, 2002). The essay is therefore written with the purpose of using hosting as a case study for strategically achieving sustainable destination management. The paper is set on four major themes, all of which focus on the achievement of the essay’s purpose. The first theme looks at sustainable destination management in the wake of globalisation. This theme therefore throws more light on why the purpose of the study is important. This is because the theme discusses why it is important to pursue sustainable destination management in the modern global context. There is also a theme that vividly explores how sustainable destination management can be promoted through sport events. The theme draws on several past sporting activities and how they helped with the destination management of the places where the events were hosted. There is also a theme on the marketing opportunities that is presented through sustainable destination management. This theme helps to make a claim for why sport events can help in yielding sustainability through continual marketing of destinations even after events have been held in destinations. Finally, there is a theme on the costs and drawbacks with the use of sport events as strategy for sustainable destination management. This versatility approach has been used to ensure that all parts of academic argument on the topic are well explored. Sustainable destination management and globalization The concept of globalisation has been noted to have very direct impact on sustainable destination management. Kurtzman and Zauhar (2007) actually explained that globalisation is the number reason sustainable destination management is very relevant. It would be noted that through globalisation, almost all parts of the world have been brought together as a globalised village where there is the easy flow of people and materials (Adams and Parmenter, 2012). Globalisation therefore acts as bait for inter-destination competition. What this means is that as there is much ease with which people and materials can move from one point of the world to the other, all destinations must compete for the limited number of travellers (Deery, Jago and Fredline, 2004). Again, through globalisation, there is the creation of what has come to be known as a global culture, which refers to the situation where it is virtually impossible to claim ownership of a particular culture as various cultures are extensively practiced the world over (Weed, 2008). The effect of global culture is that people are getting more used to different cultures and so various destinations of the world have to have a strategy with which they can sustainably attract people to experience the culture they offer. Promoting sustainable destination management through sport events As globalisation has been noted to be a phenomenon that sets destinations of the world in competition against each other, it is only true to argue that these destinations need a strategy that can draw visitors. Various cities and countries have over the years used sport events as a strategy for sustaining destination management. Weed (2008) noted that one way in which sport events act as a strategy for sustainable destination management is through the visitors it attracts to the host city or country. Meanwhile, the ability of a destination to be marked by travellers and visitors as a preferred stopping point for visitation, tourism, education, business, or permanent residence goes a long way to guarantee sustainable destination management. The FIFA 2010 World Cup held in South Africa is a typical example of how sport events help in attracting visitors to a particular. Hinch and Higham (2011) observed that even though Africa is known to have several tourist attraction spots, most visitors outside Africa have some misconceptions about the continent, serving as a disincentive to visit the place. However as football has its own following, the 2010 FIFA World Cup could attract as many as 300,000 tourists who visited South Africa as the host nation within the one month period that the event was hosted (FIFA, 2014). Economic growth and development has also been noted to be one important variable and requirement for achieving sustainable destination management (Archer, 2002). This is because for there to be long-lasting destination management, managers of destinations are expected to have sufficient funds with which they can periodically promote the destination and also provide basic facilities and amnesties that make visitors feel comfortable. Meanwhile, sport events hosting have been noted to have a positive impact on economic growth of host cities and countries. In a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research dubbed the Olympic Effect, it was noted that regardless of the cost involved in preparation for the Olympic Games, there is always a lasting economic growth effect for the destination that host these events (Andrew & Spiegel, 2009). The study showed for example that national exports always go high immediately before and long after Olympic Games are held in various cities. Using the 2008 Summer Olympics as another case study, it would be noted that Beijing became the destination for heavy investment in new sports and social facilities and transportation systems (Hinch & Higham, 2011). After the games, these facilities and transportation systems have become part of the China’s socio-economic advantage, giving visitors a sustained urge for visiting Beijing again. What is more, sport events also help in serving as a strategy for sustainable destination management through destination visibility granted to cities and countries that host these sporting activities. By destination visibility, reference is being made to the situation where a specified place becomes the centre of public knowledge and attention for a unique ground quality that the place possesses (Kotler, Bowen & Makens, 1999). McDonnell, Allen and O’Toole (2009) lamented that most destination with very excellent outputs to offer have failed to be fully utilised because of lack of visibility. Clearly, in the absence of visibility, it is not even possible to attain destination management, let alone a sustainable one. Meanwhile during sport events, people of all walks of lives including public figures, heads of countries, investors, tourists, and celebrities visit host cities and countries for the purpose of the games. But as these people visit the places, they are met with the cultures, business opportunities, traditions, geographic uniqueness, and enterprising people of the places they visit. This way, there is destination visibility through the exposure that the places get. Depending on how stakeholders of the host are able take advantage of the exposure, they are able to get these visitors penning the locations down for future visitations and thus maintaining sustainability (Deery, Jago and Fredline, 2004). A typical case of this is Azerbaijan which reported tremendous post U-17 Women’s World Cup visits in 2012 due to the global visibility the country enjoyed with the live broadcast of the matches on television stations across the world (Sports Pro Media, 2012). How sport events present marketing opportunities for destination management Marketing has been noted to be a very important determinant for sustainable destination management. This is because through marketing, destination managers are able to reach out to customers and create awareness (Andrew & Spiegel, 2009). As far as marketing is concerned, sport event hosting can be noted to be a vehicle that can be used to drive all known 4Ps of marketing which are place, price, promotion, and product. For example when any major international sport event is about to be held, there is the creation of websites and special local organising committees (LOCs) which are used to expand the reaching scope of the destinations. A very common example that can be cited with this is the Olympic torch and World Cup trophy tours. It is also known that as a way of meeting the pricing needs of different people, various pricing models and strategies are put in place to ensure that as many people as possible can patronise the destinations where the events are held. In terms of promotion, the international organising bodies have mostly taken up the task of promoting the events and thus promoting the destinations in an indirect manner (Kotler, Bowen & Makens, 1999). Then again, sport events give destinations the marketing opportunity of varying whatever products and services they have to offer so that as many different people coming to the locations as possible can have their preferences well covered. Costs and drawbacks associated with using events as a tool for destination Regardless of all the possible advantages that have been discussed which make sport events useful strategy for sustainable destination management, it would be appreciated that there are some shortcomings and drawbacks which need to be checked if the full potential of the strategy can be realised. The first of this has to do with the the short to medium term effect of cost of preparation. Using the recent 2014 Confederation Cup in Brazil as a case study, it would be noted that the organisation of the beauty of the event was marred when violent protests broke out across the country against the high public spending that went into the preparation of the event (Reuters, 2013). Indeed it is important that there will always be an extensive cost-benefit analysis that compares the cost of planning to the benefits that will be derived from the events. Another form of setback has to do with the impact of merging populations on the security and social protection of destinations. This is because in the long term, cases and news of violence, crime and social vices can go a long way to affect destination management negatively and even break apart the path of sustainability that might already be in place (McDonnell, Allen & O’Toole, 2009). Conclusion Sustainable destination management requires a periodic ground service that is rooted in the principles of extensive local knowledge, expertise and resources. The paper has been useful in establishing the fact that sport events and hosting in general can serve as an important strategy for achieving this form of sustainable destination management. This is largely because hosting puts destination managers on their feet with pre-event, event and post-event management of destinations in such a way that ensure perpetual and long-lasting positive effects on the destination. Destinations will virtually serve no relevance if they will not attract people to them. Meanwhile, sport events have greater following, which ensures that wherever events are hosted, people from all walks of lives visit the destinations. There are however some setback that destination managers have to consider critically as a way of ensuring that the hosting of events do not become more costly that the expected results that they yield. The real power of hosting as a strategic mechanism for sustainable destination management can therefore be said to rest with how managers approach the hosting of events, particularly sporting events. References Adams, P. & Parmenter B. (2012). The medium term significance of international tourism for the Australian economy, Canberra: Bureau of Tourism Research. Andrew R. K. & Spiegel M. M. (2009). The Olympic Effect. National Bureau of Economic Research. 14(3), 1-17 Archer, B. (2002). The value of multipliers and their policy implications, Tourism Management, 12(3), 236-241. Deery, M., Jago, L. and Fredline, L. (2004). Sport tourism or event tourism: are they one and the same? Journal of Sport Tourism 9(3), 235-245. FIFA (2014). Study reveals tourism impact in South Africa. Retrieved January 4, 2015 from http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/archive/worldcup/southafrica2010/news/newsid=1347377/index.html Hinch, T. and Higham, J. (2011). Sport Tourism Development. Bristol: Channel View Publications. Kotler, P., Bowen, J. & Makens, J. (1999). Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Kurtzman, J. and Zauhar, J. (2007). The Future of Sport Tourism: The Perspective of the Sport Tourism International Council. The Essential Guide. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. McDonnell, I., Allen, J. & O’Toole, W.. (2009), Festival and Special Event Management. Milton: Jacaranda-Wiley. Reuters (2013). Brazil Beats Japan, Protests Spoil Confederations Cup Opening Day. Retrieved January 4, 2015 from http://www.voanews.com/content/brazil-japan-confederations-cup/1682679.html Sports Pro Media (2012). FIFA U-17 Women`s World Cup Azerbaijan 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2015 from http://www.sportspromedia.com/directory/fifa_u-17_womens_world_cup_azerbaijan_2012 Weed, M. (2008). Olympic Tourism. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More