Mega-Events and Hallmark Events - Case Study Example

Mega Events and Hallmark Events Name Course Tutor Unit Code Date Introduction In recent times, there has been a shift towards the study of events and their importance in the field of tourism. Events have grown to be more common today, hence, attracting attention from researchers as they seek to understand the importance of events in the tourism academy. Indeed, events feature predominantly in most of today’s tourism literature from top tourism journals, monographs, school textbooks as well as practical instruction manuals available. This clearly shows that literature on events is at present one of the most prolific of any area of tourism studies. Researchers have put great effort in defining the character and coverage of event tourism (Getz 2005: 20). Event tourism is defined as an organised planning, development and promotion of planned events to attract tourists as well as for their benefits to enhance marketing, image making, and development. Events exist in different forms distinguished particularly by size, volume and impact. The rationale for hosting events may differ, but they are commonly limited in their duration. The most common events are the sporting events. Others include business events, social-cultural events, political events, and private events, among others. Mega events and Hallmark events are two key types of events. The focus of this paper is on these two events, for the most part from a sporting perspective. I discuss their defining differences and the role they play in supporting tourism (Getz 2007: 213). Mega Events Roche (2000: 1) defines mega events as, major cultural (business and sport) events with a spectacular, mass popular appeal and worldwide connotation. This definition is at the moment widely used. Other features of mega events are that they are superficially discontinuous, exceptional, international and basically outsized in composition. In this case Mega refers to, events that have the capacity to send out promotional messages to billions of the world’s populace. Typically modern-day mega events have noteworthy outcomes for the host-city, state or country where the event is staged. They as well catch the fancy of extensive media-coverage. Although a mega event is planned, as a minimum, on one occasion every year somewhere on the earth, these events are remarkable occasions for the host-cities, states and countries. Examples of mega sporting events include: Summer Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Winter Olympic Games, Cricket World Cup and British/Irish Lions tour (Burbank 2002: 180). Role of Mega Events in Encouraging Tourism The plea for hosting a mega event, in particular a mega sporting event, has gone up considerably over the past two decades. The spectacular nature of these events can be branded as a key vehicle for engendering positive as well as negative bequest for host cities along with the neighbouring area. The impending gain from hosting mega events have the capability of transforming cities to active tourist hot-spots and impact the neighbouring community for several generations to come. Mega events have an effect on not only the local economy, but also generate global attention for the host country, taking into account numerous direct along with indirect impacts (Horne & Manzenreiter 2004: 194). Apparently, the dimension of these impacts remains unknown. Even though scholars have tried to compute the economic benefits resultant from hosting a mega event ever since the 1980s, on the whole, it is in the past decade that the discussion with reference to the prospective gains, both in terms of direct monetary gains as well as the intangible gains (together with diverse non-quantifiable benefits such as enhanced as public pride, patriotism and country image), stepped up. The benefits (be they tangible or intangible) of mega events look like worthwhile. Considering the fact that a lot of countries bid to host these events, it is implied that the benefits for the most part overshadow the expenses (Burbank 2002: 186). The Summer Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup are regarded as the two key mega sporting events on earth. Other minor mega events, such as the Rugby World Cup, Winter Olympic Games, Cricket World Cup and British/Irish Lions tour, have attracted less interest. The direct benefits from hosting the Summer Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup are somehow uncertain. Given the apparent incessant interest from countries to host such events, such results are quite astounding. Nonetheless, hosting the Summer Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup does not only relate to the direct economic benefits. In view of the fact that the interest in hosting the Summer Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup does not decline even notwithstanding the negative monetary returns, then for sure some other positive, intangible benefits must be present (Horne & Manzenreiter 2004: 198). In light of this, the focus for the benefits of hosting these mega sporting events has in recent times shifted towards those intangible facets of mega events that can be quantified, such as, tourism. Through mega sporting events, the host country gets an opening to showcase its tourism brand. Burbank (2002: 192), comments that the arts, amusement, festivals, leisure, tourism along with the re-construction of cities as sporting places have grown to become outstanding features of globalisation as countries struggle to make a mark. According to Horne & Manzenreiter (2004: 200), this view is supported by the reality that mega events create a centre of attention for lots of media houses. Host countries expect to draw tourists and through broadcasting their unique culture, technological and professional superiority, growing modernity and eminence of life in very much stylized and commoditised shape. The 2002 South Korea and Japan FIFA World Cup provided even more. With programming taking in approximately 41,000 hours in 213 countries, the 2002 South Korea and Japan FIFA World Cup produced a total of close to 28.8 billion spectators. Moreover, Korea.net 2006 noted that out of hosting the 2002 FIFA World Cup, on the face of it Korea created a niche market in the FIFA World Cup linking tourism through supporters’ parks as well as public cheering squads popularised for the duration of the games. The tourism sector has been able to successfully switch street cheering into a tourism magnet. Reportedly, for the duration of the 2006 German FIFA World Cup, the Korean Tourism Organization (KTO) fruitfully sold an out-of-doors cheering trip program to visitors from Canada, Malaysia plus the United States. Horne & Manzenreiter (2004: 201) State that the FIFA World Cup has found to show a positive increase in the number of tourists. Specifically, the 1998 France and 2002 South Korea and Japan FIFA World Cups involve a climb in tourism numbers of 12 per cent and 18 per cent in that order. Hallmark Events Ritchie (1984: 14) has researched broadly on hallmark events. He states that given the seasonality of hallmark events, they defined hall mark events in terms of ‘recurring demand in the leisure, recreation, and travel markets … contributing to little output and stumpy returns on investment among the suppliers of goods and services to these markets. One considered reaction to ‘the seasonality problem,’ which has had changing degrees of success in different regions, is termed the Hallmark Event.’ Moreover they stated that such events rotate around a key subject matter; they ‘serve to focus tourism and recreational planning on a particular period of the year.’ Ritchie (1984:7) addresses hallmark events by their ‘financial, physical, socio-cultural, mental and political impacts.’ According to Ritchie (1984:7) hallmark events are ‘key one-time or recurrent events of short duration, developed for the most part to boost the understanding, appeal and profitability of a tourism destination in the short and/or long term. Such events rely for their success on exceptionality, eminence, or timely connotation to generate interest and draw attention.’ defined hallmark events are ‘those that front such importance, in terms of customs, liveliness, image or media hype that the event presents, the city, area or destination with a competitive advantage.’ Examples of hallmark event include: the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the Monaco Grand Prix Formula 1, Boston Marathon, the Masters Golf tournament. Melbourne, Australia is an exceptional city in the world defined by the number of ‘hallmark events’ it hosts every year. These are: (1) the Australian Opens (tennis); (2) the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival; (3) the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix; (4) L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival; (5) Melbourne International Comedy Festival; (6) Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show; (7) Melbourne Horse Racing Cup Carnival; (8) Australian Rules Football Grand Final; and (9) Boxing Day Cricket Test (Getz 2007: 15). Hallmark events are of a much lower scale compared to mega events. Role of Hallmark Events in Encouraging Tourism In his book on the subject of hallmark events, states that hallmark events build the image of modern tourism. He goes further to equate them to mega events or special events. The term 'hallmark event' has without doubt found its way into the dictionary of agencies that support and develop event tourism. For illustration, City of Halifax in Canada, in 2009 introduced two occasional events, the Atlantic Jazz Festival along with the Bluenose International Marathon, to the calendar of their hallmark events to be supported financially upon acknowledging their key power to catch the attention of a lot of people plus capacity to promote the City of Halifax as a tourist destination (Getz 2005: 48). On the other side of the planet, in New Zealand, the City of Hamilton is on the record for supporting event tourism, according to the city’s 2008 policy statement to be traced from hamilton.co.nz. An excerpt of the policy statement states that ‘the policy identifies that there are several hallmark events in the city that will have need of continued financial support from the Events Sponsorship Fund in view of the fact that they supply noteworthy visitor numbers as well as destination publicity for the city. Clearly these events have grown to be robustly linked with City of Hamilton (Getz 2007: 97). Nearly each and every one example of hallmark events given is long-term, cyclic, involving sports or customary celebrations or both. In fact, in what Getz (2005; 105) calls a union of form along with purpose, many iconic sporting events all over the globe have grown to become key celebrations given the detailed programming around the mainstay competition, hence creating much expanded appeal and publicity that facilitates tourist activities. Hallmark events on the supply side offer appeal, means, imagery, liveliness, and place marketing in the host destination that are a reflection of what tourists who are pulled to such events demand. In this perspective, hallmark events serve to put into operation the general event tourism ambitions, and have got to be conceptualized from the side of tourist experiences and the reflection of the event for prospective tourists. According to Getz (2005: 120) depiction of an event tourism portfolio, hallmark events engage an important and lasting position in promoting tourism. It is therefore expected that hallmark events should have enough clout to attract tourists. Conclusion Event tourism has become quite common today and has attracted a lot of attention from scholars. The hype created by such events, particularly the mega events and the hallmark events, has necessitated research into the benefits of hosting these events. Apparently there is no empirical proof that direct economic benefits from these events exceed the invested amounts. Therefore, researchers have turned to intangible benefits that are quantifiable, especially tourism. Evidently, these events create centres that attract tourists through the global marketing, the media attention and attractiveness created as host cities, states and countries seek to make a mark on the global stage and therefore play a big role in encouraging tourism (Getz 2005: 112). References Burbank, M.J. (2002). Mega-events, Urban Development, and Public Policy. The Review of Policy Research 19(3): 179-202. Getz, D. (2005). Event Management and Event Tourism. 2nd edn, Cognizant, New York. Getz, D. (2007). Event Studies: Theory, Research and Policy for Planned Events. Elsevier, Oxford. 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, 39(2): 187-203. Ritchie, B. J. R. (1984). Assessing the Impacts of Hallmark Events: Conceptual and Research Issues. Journal of Travel Research, 23(1): 1-11. Read More