Characteristics of Hallmark and Mega-events There are many differences apart from the definition. To succinctly delineate the characteristics of the two events, it would be prudent to consider each separately. Hallmark Tourist Events Most hallmark events are often confused to be mega events simply because of their large size. However, there are underlying unique features that are tied to hallmark events. Hallmark events may be huge or small events that occur recurrently at the same venue in a maintained fashion (Getz et al.
, 2012: 47). This means that when the names of such events are mentioned, the notion of the destination comes into the mind (Getz et al., 2012: 48). In New Zealand, the city of Hamilton has been associated with a lot of events that have served as a destination exposure for the city (Getz et al., 2012: 49).Getz et al. (2012) further notes that, hallmark events are large enough but not to the sizes attained by the mega-events (48). Page and Connell (2012) suggest that even small events that repeatedly take place over the same venues have the qualification of being referred to as hallmark events based on their nature (106).
Getz et al. (2012) outline some of the events that take place in Australia to be hallmark events such as the ones organized by the Melbourne Events Company each year. Some of the events are the Australia Formula One Grand Pix, Melbourne Cup Carnival and Melbourne Food and Wine Tasting Festival (Getz et al., 2012: 49). Page and Connell (2012) also identify the Indianapolis 500 car race as a hallmark event. Hallmark events could be those that mark the important anniversary such as those sport events in memory of famous sports men and thus occur one time (Getz et al.
, 2012: 50). However, in this case, the hallmark events will occur in the same venue repeatedly (Getz et al., 2012: 50). Hallmark events are iconic in nature and thus are important national symbols that have attached value (Getz et al., 2012: 51). When making arrangements for hallmark events volunteers may be allowed to participate. The hallmark events require no bidding process compared to the large mega-events that have to be bided for so that the highest bidder becomes the host (Getz et al.
, 2012: 56). Hallmark events may attract international visitors, however not at the same capacity as mega-events. When repetitively held in a given place, the host destination gets fame globally and many people tend to visit such areas as a move to enjoy the prestige of the hosts. The hallmark events planning process do not end at the time the event ends. Instead, the planners have to do follow-ups in order to evaluate the success and failures of the events for the successful of subsequent events (Getz et al.
, 2012: 50). However, this only applies for the multiple hallmark events that regularly occur and not the one-time events where the follow up is done when planning the next (Getz et al., 2012: 50) Mega-Events There are four major characteristics of mega-events: expenses, visitor attractiveness, media coverage, and transformative impacts that accrue. Mega events attract a huge number of tourists. Measuring the number of exact visitors who attend mega-events is usually hard (Muller, 2015: 4). However, some literatures indicate that a minimum of one million people are attracted to such mega-events (Tutsirai, 2011: 47).
Most of the events are overflowing with people to an extent that the host has to locate the venues differently for the safety concerns of the visitors. The visitors in mega events usually have different destinations. For example, Common wealth Games draws visitors for different competitions, resulting to a single visitor or group having up to even four tickets (Muller 2015: 2). The number of receipts sold depends on the duration. The World Expo 2010 in Shanghai sells more tickets since it runs for six months (Muller, 2015: 3).
Mega-events are not held in one place as reflected by the World expo that has been held in 16 countries since being unleashed in 1851 in London (Yu et al.
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