Analysis of the Types of Sport Tourism - Essay Example

?Impact of Major Sporting Events on Host Communities Introduction Nowadays, numerous cities, regions, or countries are making an effort capitalising on major sport events to realise planned corporate goals. The underlying principle of this effort is that sports events have the capacity to create exceptional opportunities for major political, social, and economic gains for the host city, region, and country. All kinds of sport tourism have a certain degree of effect on the external and internal setting of which they manoeuvre. Major sport events create massive economic consequences, together with the political and social implications of tourism (Pedersen et al. 2010). Thus, this essay critically evaluates whether major sport events are of major benefit to the host city, region, or country. Social Impacts Tourism research has presented a wide array of proof that major sport events can have negative and positive impacts on a host city. Several of the positive outcomes concern economic gain or national honour and high spirits among citizens. This national honour leads to the ‘psychic income’ related to hosting a major event (Gratton & Henry 2001, 32). Moreover, major sporting events have been said to introduce nations to new knowledge and lead to a liberalisation of ideals in closed societies. As a worldwide event, sport draws active involvement and mass viewership, both creating the sub-cultural features of such sport (Gratton & Henry 2001). Commonly, scholars give much attention to the economic effects of major sporting events, thus studies in this field is scarce. According to Hall (1992), social impacts is “the manner in which tourism and travel affect changes in the collective and individual value systems, behaviour patterns, community structures, lifestyle and quality of life” (as cited in Robinson et al. 2011, 155). In general, such social impacts are described as temporary impacts to host societies; in contrast, cultural impacts are naturally enduring, rooted in the transformations of the social values, standards, and relationships of the host society. Hence, nearly all investigations in this field put emphasis on the more specific social impacts of major sporting events (Robinson et al. 2011). A number of researchers have reported the various effects of major sporting events, with several thoughts about the general impact being negative or positive, or both. Recently, there has been an increasing attention given to the social gains of major sporting events for societies. The investigation of Waitt (2003) on the social outcomes of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 reported that in spite of disapproving outlooks and objections to the prelude to the event, all through the event there was “a reason to celebrate rather than protest” (as cited in Pedersen et al. 2010, 238) and citizens disclosed a heightened feeling of national pride. Likewise, Kim and Petrick (2005 as cited in Pedersen et al. 2010, 238), in an investigation of the South Korea FIFA World Cup in 2002, discovered that even though the passion does appear to ebb after the sport event, it does not fade entirely. A further social gain of major sporting events for hosting societies is the gift of urban restoration. In fact, hosting the 1987 America’s Cup has been recognised as the driving mechanism for the reconstruction of the metropolitan zone in Fremantle, Australia. It has been discovered that the apprehensions about severe traffic jams and overcrowding were groundless (Pedersen et al. 2010). Rather, as stated by Pedersen and colleagues (2010), citizens believed that development in infrastructures and opportunity for improved tourism would further enhance the better standard of living in the period after the event. Nevertheless, positive impacts may not constantly stem from major sporting events. According to Higham (1999 as cited in Hinch & Higham 2011, 55), some of the negative outcomes of sport events are interruptions to traditional lifestyle, displacement of local communities, and congestion. Hall and Hodges (1996 as cited in Weed 2007, 26), in an investigation of the possible negative impacts of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, discovered that a major sport event had an effect on various sectors of host society disproportionately. Working-class citizens usually bear most of the burden because they are often relocated from their quarters by redevelopment projects (Weed 2007). According to Robinson and colleagues (2011), this forced eviction of low-income citizens has been a widespread tradition as regards to the Olympics, as host communities confront choices over where to construct sports grounds, residences for athletes, and others. Political Impacts Political impacts are rampant within types of sport tourism, but specifically within global sport events like the Olympic Games. The host community’s publicity through global media exposure furthers a society’s significant stride onto the global arena. Most of the time the media demonstrate the hosting of a mega event as a beneficial one, calling to mind the numerous related gains to local residents (Weed 2007). Nevertheless, more significantly, is the powerful political statement expressed by the host society. For instance, as mentioned by Weed (2007), the Berlin Olympics in 1936 took place during a political disorder with the invasion of the Nazi government. The statement revealed to humanity was power, control, and superiority. Political statements expressed more inwardly within a host country comprise the advantages of strength and promote vigorous ways of life. This is especially valuable to nearby areas provided the chance to make use of modern sports ground (Weed 2007). Other important political statements have tried to draw investment to the host country and support globalisation with regard to the eradication of cultural diversities. Although these outcomes are largely beneficial, there have been several cases where the political impacts were mostly detrimental (Hinch & Higham 2011). According to Robinson and colleagues (2011), with people from across the globe watching, major sport events are one of the best opportunities for dissents and terror campaigns. According to Weed (2007), other unfavourable political outcomes exist in instances where the host community is not successful in creating history and instead generates huge liabilities, such as the case of Lake Placid, New York Olympics in 1980, or is not successful in attracting attention, like the very low attendance statistics at the New Orleans Olympics. Economic Impact Mega events indisputably draw huge throngs of spectators and media. The Olympics, Super Bowl, World Cup, and others all draw crowds of supporters and a clear explosion of economic development. Massive hordes of people attend these major events, and they use up a lot of resources in the local community (Barget & Gouguet 2010). Besides their expenses at the event, these spectators splurge money at souvenir stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. This initial set of spending offers earnings to local residents, which leads to consequent series of spending. Thus, the economic outcome of major sport events is a multiplied effect of the first set of expenditures. Sports agencies and associations usually overstate this economic outcome for their self-centred objectives (Barget & Gouguet 2010). For instance, according to Robinson and colleagues (2011), the National Football League (NFL) declares that the outcome of the Super Bowl is incredibly huge, amounting to millions of dollars. But this kind of declarations is suspicious. Taking into account the popularity and magnitude of the event, reasonably few reliable data on the economic outcomes of the Olympics are available. A great deal of the available literature has been made by the host communities, which have an underlying motive in validating the huge expenses on the sport activities (Barget & Gouguet 2010). Given that these calculations of economic outcomes are founded partly on expenditures by spectators who attend the sport activities, the data on approximated attendance is intriguing as well. Similar to the calculations of economic outcome, the attendance approximations reveal a substantial level of disparity, ranging from only tens of thousands of attendees for the Moscow Olympics in 1980 to a huge millions for the Athens Games in 2004 (Hinch & Highman 2011). As stated, the host communities have a vested interest to exaggerate these figures to give explanation for their huge expenses on the sport activities. Sporting events generate two primary kinds of favourable externality on the whole: (1) territorial changes, and (2) social connections (Gratton & Henry 2001). Social connections built during sporting events rely on their locations, the people concerned, the kind of sport, their size, etc. It is likely however to believe that, in most cases, sporting events strengthen social unity, and even create social concern for the needy, marginalised, and vulnerable. This is because sport is a mover of common ideals which, because of the media, can be communicated on a greater level (Gratton & Henry 2001). As regards to territorial changes, the externalities may assume the character of favourable social impacts stemming from sport events’ economic outcome, such as the alleviation of strains associated with drugs, criminal behaviour, and joblessness (Robinson et al. 2011). These externalities, according to Gratton and Henry (2001), as well, might involve upgrading the brand, so far from the social as the economic perspective, which might reinforce its appeal. On the other hand, unfavourable externalities also involve territorial changes and social connections, but influence them detrimentally. Hooliganism, together with the disappearance of integrity because of secretive misconducts, are the most widespread type of the unfavourable effect of sporting events on social unity (Pedersen et al. 2010). From the perspective of territorial changes, unfavourable externalities are classified into three (Andreff & Szymanski 2006, 168): (1) spatial division between the wealthy and unfortunate created by large-scale redevelopment projects in urban areas engaged in hosting major events; (2) the debt which follows for host communities when the resources which has been spent fail to result in actual economic growth; and (3) the outward movement of people due to worries about congestion during major sport events. Discussion and Conclusions There are numerous challenges in analysing a concept of the political, social, and economic impact of major sporting events. These challenges originate from two occurences: (1) professional sport is a quite new human endeavour; (2) the intellectual fields that would try to study the functions of sport are especially new. These fields, ranging from psychology, sociology, and political science on the one hand, to marketing, accounting, and economics on the other, are generally the product of postwar analysis, research, and education. The fact that they existed at the same time with the extensive development phase of professional sport is unexpected, and something that has not been essentially beneficial. Hence although the two occurences have developed simultaneously and in huge strides, they have grown separately (Hinch & Highman 2011). Economics, according to Weed (2007), is the only one of the fields that has any substantial, long-standing history in the analysis of sport events. On the other hand, the types and structures of sports governance, as regards to their procedures and organisations, have the capacity to be a vital arena of change in the economics and politics of sporting events. The economy of major sporting events can have remarkable impacts on specific countries. There is an issue over the accountability and governance in the governing agencies in international sports (Robinson et al. 2011). According to Robinson and colleagues (2011), in spite of the existence of structured governance processes, like general meetings of representatives from national associated organisations, there is often an absence of accountability and the officials and the agencies and, to a slighter degree, the representatives of member associations. The lure of hosting major sport events for a country, region, or city should be apparent. The sport activities run for only a brief duration but guarantee numerous gains, both inconcrete and concrete. Among the concrete gains are large numbers of visitors, from people taking a trip downtown to watch the Games to wealthy investors and foreign public figures checking in at first-class hotels. The inconcrete gains include period of global media exposure and copious media coverage about the host country, region, or city. As an outcome of adjustments in economic globalisation and federal planning, local policymakers have shifted toward commercial techniques to encourage development and improve the image of their nation, region, or city. Local policymakers are not capable of regulating the wider political, social, and economic conditions in which societies find themselves (Andreff & Szymanski 2006). Nevertheless, they can choose about how to approach development that will influence citizens’ lives, the opportunities for local commerce, and finally the society’s prosperity. Such decisions are seldom reached through significant democratic discussion between local policymakers and residents (Barget & Gouguet 2010). Instead, the political plan of a community is governed by a goal toward economic develoment for development strongly binds policymakers and business people. Nevertheless, the goal toward economic development can take numerous distinct routes. References Andreff, W. & Szymanski, S. (2006) Handbook on the Economics of Sport. UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. Barget, E. & Gouguet, J. (2010) “Hosting Mega-Sporting Events: Which Decision-Making Rule?” International Journal of Sport Finance, 5(2), 141+ Gratton, C. & Henry, I. (2001) Sport in the City: The Role of Sport in Economic and Social Regeneration. London: Routledge. Hinch, T. & Higham, J. (2011) Sport Tourism Development. UK: Short Run Press Ltd. Pedersen, P., Parks, J., Quarterman, J., & Thibault, L. (2010) Contemporary Sports Management. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Robinson, P., Heitmann, S. & Dieke, P. (2011) Research themes for tourism. UK: CABI. Weed, M. (2007) Sport & Tourism: A Reader. New York: Routledge. Read More