Search results

The purpose of this paper is to identify strategic objectives that can be utilized by non-host communities to leverage the opportunities provided by mega sport events. The unique context and timing of this study facilitates discussion surrounding a particular non-host community and how it can plan relevant objectives to best identify appropriate leveraging mechanisms.

The study adopted a qualitative approach, drawing upon a case study of Kobe City, Japan, a non-host city of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Data were collected using diverse sources such as site visits, field notes, newspaper articles, destination marketing materials, archival data from sport and tourism facilities, and workshop with key stakeholders.

The within-case analysis identified four key objectives a non-host city could utilize to leverage mega sport events, namely, enhancing destination brand equity, integrating leveraging strategies with the existing event portfolio, fostering social capital, and strengthening corporate networks.

Research on event leveraging has typically focused on host cities, while there has been limited research attention on non-host cities. This paper highlights the importance of formulating shared objectives so as to provide a strong focus for relevant stakeholders, guide the deployment of resources, and create effective leveraging strategies. Few studies have focused on the planning of leveraging initiatives.

Olympic Games provide an arguably unparalleled amount of opportunities for the host city and country in relation to economic and socio-cultural growth and development. However, the achievement of such long-term success measures lies with the holistic involvement of community groups, specifically residents, in the planning of the mega event. The purpose of this paper is to examine the residents’ attitudes of the 2016 Olympic Games and to verify moderating effects of place of residence in support of the Games.

The data were collected in Brazil in the months leading to the Rio Olympic Games using non-probabilistic convenience sampling. A total of 501 responses were collected prior to the opening ceremony of the event. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied.

The socio-cultural and economic dimensions had a positive and significant effect in support for the Olympic Games; however, the environmental dimension did not have such strong effect. Furthermore, differences between host and non-host city residents tested positive in support of the Olympic Games.

This study aims to contribute to the developing application of country branding by examining attitudes of internal stakeholder groups in the form of residents.

This research presents a conceptual model to further establish the importance of such attitudes for organizers and government authorities involved with the bidding, planning and management of mega events from a country branding perspective, particularly in developing countries such as Brazil.

This study aims to recommend initiatives that can be adopted to overcome overtourism in host destinations of mega sport events.

This study adopts a qualitative research design that involves 20 semi-structured interviews with key informant stakeholders of the London 2012 Olympic Games. An exploratory case study approach was used to investigate strategies used to leverage tourism benefits in host destinations, and the authors used thematic analysis to present strategies to overcome overtourism in host cities.

This study emphasises the need for spreading tourists beyond the host city as a main strategy. To do so, three initiatives are recommended: spreading domestic tourism outside the host city, showcasing destination beyond the host city and promoting regional collaboration.

This research provides tourism practitioners and destination management organisations in host destinations of mega sport events with an advanced strategic insights to capitalise on mega sport events. The authors suggest considering the events as a theme through an event planning process to overcome potential overtourism in unique host cities.

As overtourism has an impact on visited destinations, this study argues that overtourism can be generated by mega sport events. This paper offers an extended insight into overcoming overtourism by implementing strategic event tourism, leveraging initiatives that can be extended in use to reach geographic areas beyond host cities of mega sport events.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how non-host cities strategically plan to leverage pre-Games training for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games to maximize benefits to the city.

Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with key tourism and government stakeholders involved in developing leveraging strategies for pre-Games training in a non-host city. Interviews were conducted a little over 18 months before the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

A model of the strategic planning of leveraging pre-Games training is presented. Pre-Games training was positioned as a leverageable resource. The non-host city was well positioned to host pre-Games training given its existing sport focus and facilities and its proximity to the host city and its similar climate. Opportunities, objectives, means, and considerations were constantly developed. The city strategically targeted teams to maximize the use of the training facilities and make the most of the value of well-known athletes, while being cautious of overcrowding. The teams had to be secured before strategies were devised to achieve other opportunities and objectives. Short-term benefits included generating tourism through visiting teams and entourages and integrating visiting teams into the local community through education and sport programming. Long-term benefits included building the destination’s capacity and reputation as a place for elite training camps and tourism.

Understanding how to develop strategies to leverage pre-Games training can inform those responsible for developing and implementing pre-Games training strategies and lead to maximizing the benefits to a city or region.

Limited research has examined the strategic planning process used to develop tactics to leverage mega-events. This study provides insight into the strategic planning process of non-host cities to increase short- and long-term benefits by leveraging pre-Games training.

The bid process for hosting mega global sporting events mandates the enactment of event-specific ambush marketing legislation that provides extraordinary trademark law protections for private sports organisations and their official sponsors. Such event-specific ambush marketing legislation, or ESAML, has come under increasing scrutiny by academics and practitioners who question, among other things, the need for such legislation. One of the major areas of concern has become the potential social cost of such legislation that includes restrictions on free speech and curbs on marketplace competition. We apply economic theory as a means to explain why governments have been so willing to enact such legislation.

Using Beijing’s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games as an example, the purpose of this paper is to explore the expected social impact of mega-sporting events, as perceived by non-host city residents, and the way in which this perception affects attitudes toward bidding.

An empirical survey study was conducted in which data were collected from residents in Shanghai, comprising a sample of 483 respondents. An exploratory factor analysis identified 40 items loaded on eight distinctive factors that underlie the expected social impact of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the effect of the perceived impact on residents’ attitudes toward the bid to host the Olympics.

Among the eight identified impact factors, six were found to be positive and two negative. While all factors were significantly higher above the point of indifference, perceived positive impact factors tended to outweigh those that were negative. In addition, seven out of the eight factors were found to be significantly predictive of support for Beijing’s bidding: while the effect of “tourism and environment,” “social capital and psychic income,” “international cooperation and exchange,” “infrastructure,” “national image,” and “sport development” was positive, the effect of the “higher living cost” factor was negative with regard to the support of the bidding. This study seeks to contribute by taking a non-host community perspective.

A growing body of literature has documented perspectives on events and their specific timing during event cycles, i.e., during the bidding stage. In addition, it also offers insight into the perception and attitudes of citizens from emerging markets toward event bidding and hosting, both of which play an increasingly important role in global sports but, on the whole, remain relatively under researched.

This paper aimed to verify the most important factors (cognitive and affective dimensions) perceived in Rio de Janeiro’s image as the host city of the 2016 Olympic Games and to identify the factors that predict better the overall city image and its affective image dimension in this particular context of a sports mega-event.

This paper employs exploratory factor analysis to define intervening factors in each dimension of Rio de Janeiro’s image. By parting from the initial diagnostic analysis, multiple regression analysis was applied to measure how the intervening factors predicted the overall image of the host city, as well as to whether its cognitive dimension was able to predict the affective dimension. Data collection was conducted by applying structured questionnaires with a sample of international respondents (n = 274).

Rio’s image as a sports mega-event host city presented two intervening factors for each dimension. For image composition, the most important cognitive factor diagnosed was “Services and Attractions.” For the affective dimension, the most important factor diagnosed was “Positive Feelings.” The investigation concluded that the cognitive dimension was capable of predicting the affective dimension, as “Positive Feelings” was the factor that better predicted Rio’s overall image as the host city of the 2016 Olympic Games, while the “Services and Attractions” factor was not significant in predicting the host city’s image.

The main focus of the investigation was the host city’s international image as presented by primary sources. The sample for investigation was therefore composed exclusively of foreign students, nonresidents in Brazil, who did not participate in said events. Although this approach provides a partial diagnostic of the host cityvs image, for an overall and accurate image diagnostic it is also relevant to investigate the national residents’ point of view, which is beyond the scope of this investigation.

The findings suggest that destination marketers would obtain better results investing in the affective dimension, employing actions that stimulate positive feelings about the host city, especially when relating to sports mega-event. Investment in general infrastructure is also presented as a relevant factor.

The host city’s image can guide policies to improve local capacity to attract investments and new events that contribute to change in urban areas, as well as to reinforce positive aspects of that image. Investment in general infrastructure, again, is presented as a crucial issue.

The value and originality of the presented investigation lie in a lack of specific studies on Rio’s image as a travel destination, despite its being the most important touristic city in Brazil and the host for the 2016 Olympic Games. A separate analysis of individual image dimensions and the examination of intervening cognitive factors in the affective dimension are also not common in a sports mega-event context.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games required a significant investment in the public transport systems, connecting four city's areas and providing different types of impacts and legacies for their hosts. The purpose of this paper is to examine resident perceptions of the public transportation issues in the Rio host city before and after the Games. Key factors underpinning transportation issue outcomes are identified.

Data were collected among Rio local residents by using a pre-Games (n = 504) and post-Games design (n = 421). The cross-sectional and longitudinal data were assessed at both time periods. An exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors, and a confirmatory factor analysis analysed the psychometric properties of the constructs proposed. Subsequently, MANOVA and a series of ANOVA tests (one-way and paired samples) were performed to analyse the differences in perceptions before and after the Games.

Results revealed a five-factor model of public transportation issues perceived: planning, infrastructure, insecurity, information and urban mobility. Resident perceptions for four factors (planning, infrastructure, insecurity, urban mobility) increased from pre- to post-Games, meaning that they have a more negative perspective about those issues. In contrast, the findings suggested an improvement in public transport information perceived between the period before and after the Games.

This study contributes to the academic literature related to discussing the Olympic legacy by providing evidence of how hosting the Olympics may lead to social exchange with negative outcomes on transport legacy. The findings of this study can be used as valuable information for future event organizers, local authorities and governments.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure the legacy of psychic income associated with the Olympic Games.

Using the 2008 Beijing Games as an example, data were collected from Beijing residents through structured questionnaires. A scale of measuring psychic income (SPI) was developed through conducting a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) based on a sample of 375.

In the CFA estimation, a seven-factor SPI was identified with 24 pertinent items retained. This seven-factor model displays good fit to the data, construct validity, and reliability.

Despite the importance of psychic income widely recognized in the existing literature, there has been a lack of valid scales to measure major sports events psychic income in general and Olympic psychic income in particular. This paper develops a multidimensional scale from the host community perspective, which can provide academics and local organizers with a reliable and valid tool to assess Olympic psychic income.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the social impact of major sports events perceived by host city residents using Shanghai as an example.

Exploratory factor analysis based on 450 valid questionnaires.

Research revealed six impact factors including four positive ones: “image and status,” “international exchange and cooperation,” “economic and tourism development,” and “infrastructure development.” In addition, two negative ones are also identified as “inconvenience of life” and “environment pollution and security concern.” Taken as a whole, the local residents in Shanghai have a relative positive perception of the impact of major sports events. Four out of six impact factors were significantly predictive of the attitude toward future bidding of major sports events.

The existing literature mainly examined social impact of specific events through case study, and little is known about the overall perception of major sports events in general. Accordingly, this paper seeks to bridge the gap by taking an event portfolio approach using Shanghai as an example.