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1 International Sports Events
Moving Toward a Future Research Agenda
Richard Shipway and Alan Fyall
Introduction
The aim of this book on international sports events is to examine a selection of key issues, trends, impacts and opportunities in the relationship between sport, tourism and events and how, irrespective of whether mega, leisure or community-based sports, event organisers and destination managers can tap the potential to be derived from sports events. The sports events sector has significant growth potential, and while larger-scale events tend to deliver a greater economic return, it is apparent that smaller community events can also deliver significant benefits. As participation rates in both sport and events continue to grow, the opportunities relating to sports events that are available to event organisations, other sport event stakeholders and destinations will continue to diversify and expand (Fyall et al. 2008). The aims of this book are, therefore, achieved through an examination of the three primary themes of the book: impacts, experiences and identities. In doing so, a future research agenda for international sports events will be identified.
Impacts and Legacies
The first part of this book addresses issues linked to sports eventsā impacts and legacies, as understanding of the impacts and potential legacies of sports events is fundamental to their future development. The growth of demand for certain sports and the changing resource requirements of others may place considerable demands on host communities, event organisers and those managing destinations. Similarly, the relationship between sport and the social, cultural, environmental and economic environments is constantly changing, with the success with which these impacts and legacies are understood and managed very likely to impact on the success or failure of prospective sports events. Unless the diverse range of impacts and legacies of sports are managed carefully, the long-term sustainability of some events and their future development could be compromised. Whilst the rationale for sports events is generally economic, they can generate benefits in the areas of sport (through increased sports participation); impact upon social aspects of a host community (including social regeneration, community and national pride, or enhancing volunteer workforces); generate economic benefits (in terms of employment, inwards investment, or investment in infrastructure), support environmental initaitives (through sustainable, accessible and inclusive facilities); and finally, provide opportunities for the enhancement of tourism (including the raising of service standards, destination repositioning and branding).
There is a wide recognition of the economic impact that international sports events can generate in attracting visitors to a region to participate or observe a sporting event. To begin this first section of the book, in Chapter 2, Li and Jago provide an overview of the key approaches that have been adopted with regard to the assessment of the economic impact of international sports events and discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches. Their chapter presents the findings of a meta-analysis undertaken to examine the key patterns in economic assessments of international sports events based on previous studies reported in the literature. In contrast, Chapter 3, by Dowse, provides an analysis of the political and international relations impacts of hosting sports mega-events, through the use of a case study of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This chapter considers the extent to which nation states expect to derive political and international relations outcomes from the bidding for and hosting of mega-events, and how far the actual outcomes derived match those expectations. Dowse also explores how sustainable are such outcomes; and in whose interests do such political and international relations outcomes serve.
In Chapter 4, Hughes looks at the sport participation legacies of major sports events, examining the often-quoted, but seemingly unsubstantiated, claims about the positive sports development potential of hosting a sports mega-event. The findings look at how the concept of legacy has been constructed, the processes involved and whether this can deliver truly sustainable sports development. In Chapter 5, Wong also examines the concept of sporting legacy but within the context of the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore. The chapter addresses three key issues, namely: what legacies Singapore sought to create and gain from the YOG; what will be the impacts on sporting legacy; and how these legacies are being sustainably delivered.
In Chapter 6, Stevenson examines the cultural legacy of the 2012 Games, providing evidence from one London borough directly involved with the delivery of the Cultural Olympiad. The chapter looks at four key areas. First, Stevenson investigates those factors that influence the development and delivery of the cultural legacy before then considering its impact on local communities. There is then an exploration of the implications of those factors for the practice or enactment of the Cultural Olympiad with an examination of cultural legacy planning that is grounded in the experiences, perceptions and opinion of local policymakers. Finally, Stevenson contributes to theory development by providing local insights to broaden understanding of the practicalities of legacy planning. In the final chapter of Part I, Chapter 7, Sadd looks at the concept of carrying capacity at international sports events. As an increasing number of destinations entertain the notion of hosting sports events, this chapter considers whether it is necessary to articulate a carrying capacity measurement for such events, and in doing so, the chapter considers issues related to transport, accommodation, funding, community impacts, and the environmental footprint and sustainability of sports events.
Consumer Behaviour and the Participant Experience
In the second part of the book, the focus moves from impact and legacy issues towards exploring the consumer behaviour and participant experiences at a diverse selection of international sports events. One particular area that sport, tourism and events have in common is that they provide consumers with experiences. As such, one approach towards understanding the interaction between sport, tourism and events is to consider sport tourism as an āexperienceā. Indeed, sports events experiences are subjective and emotional, laden with symbolic meaning. Within the context of the development of sports events research, it is suggested that there should be a greater focus on understanding rather than merely describing sports events behaviours, which is in line with the previous concerns expressed by both Gibson (2005) and Weed (2006) respectively. Whilst both authors comment more specifically within the sport tourism literature, their thoughts are equally applicable to more general emerging studies in the domain of international sports events. It is with this in mind, and with an aim to assist with the academic progression from description to explanation, that this section of the book follows this emerging path and continues to move studies beyond the profiling of sport tourists to a deeper understanding and a more meaningful explanation of their profiles.
The emphasis within this section is clearly grounded within the tourism dimension of sports events. Chapter 8 looks at the āevent experienceā of triathletes as active sport tourists. Using a qualitative approach, the focus of the chapter examines both the tourist experience of triathletes competing in overseas events and determines the destination choice of triathletes with regards to events participation. In contrast to the experiences of active sport event participants, in Chapter 9 Henderson investigates why people attend major Olympic class sailing regattas. The chapter addresses four key areas, namely: the extent to which personal, social and cultural factors affect attendee behaviour; the identification and evaluation of attendee motivations; attendee experiences; and finally, a closer exploration of attendee event patterns of tourist behaviour. Whilst Henderson focuses on event sport tourists and Miller explores the experiences of active sport tourists, in Chapter 10, Moital and Dias adopt a contrasting positivist perspective, using a logistic regression model, to analyse the determinants of golf touristsā satisfaction. A survey of golf tourists visiting Lisbon (Portugal) was used as a basis for achieving the research objectives, and the chapter begins to make a contribution towards existing literature by further exploring golf tourism impacts, satisfaction and cross-cultural studies, as well as the application of logistic regression within a sports events setting.
In Chapter 11, meanwhile, Dashper presents findings on elite sports experiences from a case study of equestrian events at the 2008 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games. Dashper explores the experience of being an Olympian, yet being separated from the sporting, social and cultural centre of the Olympics and considers the extent to which these equestrian athletes felt themselves to be a part of the Olympic experience. The chapter sheds light on important features of this debate, such as problems and drawbacks associated with staging the equestrian events at a distance from the heart of the Games. In Chapter 12, Myers and Hannam explore womenās adventure sport tourism identities in New Zealand. The chapter illustrates the selffulfilment and benefits gained from participation in such activities and also considers the constraints encountered, whilst the findings also suggest that adventure sport tourism activities provoke the most meaningful and enjoyable responses of all the tourism and leisure-related activities. Importantly, this chapter has particular relevance by exposing the lack of research into the experiences of women travellers.
Sports Events and Identities
The purpose of Part III of this book is to build on some of the previous qualitative findings by first highlighting the dominant role of identity within a diverse selection of sports events, and then demonstrating how that identity is portrayed and displayed whilst either watching or participating in a sporting activity. Part III makes a contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms or social processes that enable sport spectators/fans and participants to experience identity through sports participation and sporting events, an area that more specifically within the sport tourism literature is indentified as lacking understanding by both Gibson (2005) and Weed (2005). Exploring sports events from both the spectatorsā/fansā and participantsā perspective serves to illustrate the fact that, while understanding the characteristics of sports events is important, where these empirical research findings move sports events studies forward is the ability to contribute towards an understanding of one of the most important concerns in contemporary society: identity as a social construct. What clearly emerges from Chapters 13 to 16 is the unique identity and culture of the diverse range of sports explored, with the findings addressing diverse aspects of the respective sports culture, whilst also identifying a range of areas that still merit further investigation. The findings demonstrate how sports events provide the individual with a sense of belonging and illustrate an individualās understanding of āwho they areā. Similarly, it illustrates how sports events provide a valued place within their social environment, a means to connect to others, and the opportunity to use valued identities to enhance self-worth and self-esteem.
To begin the final part of the book, issues linked to Olympic tourism experiences are examined by Kirkup in Chapter 13, whereby the dearth of research on why tourists attend the Olympic Games is identified. The chapter utilises means-end (ME) theory, and its associated qualitative interview technique (laddering), in order to understand the behaviour of international Olympic tourists at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Both Kirkup, in this chapter, and Shipway, in Chapter 16, build on their previous joint research (Shipway and Kirkup 2011) to argue that, in order to understand the experiences and identities of both active and event sport participants, future research in this area needs to be qualitative in nature. In Chapter 14 Kingās research findings are drawn from a study of mountain bikers at a forest location in the UK, exploring the range of lifestyle opportunities associated with mountain biking, focussing specifically on a youth dimension. The chapter reports on research that is theoretically influenced by social and cultural research into youth leisure and which argues that youth lifestyles involve a spectrum of cultural practices, tastes and knowledge, and that lifestyle sports have highlighted the importance of lifestyle and identity in youth sporting participation. In Chapter 15, Wright migrates attention to nostalgic aspects of sport tourism with an examination of the production and consumption of stadiums as sites of āauthenticā cultural heritage. The chapter further explores the heritage (or nostalgia) aspect of sport tourism from the perspective of both the domestic and international consumer (such as the fan, the follower and the tourist) and the primary producer (including the promoters and tour guides). In Chapter 16, Shipway highlights the role that distance running events play as a āthird placeā, away from the home and work environment. The findings are based on studies undertaken at a selection of international running events with the key theme emerging from the data being the strength of identification that distance runners had with their chosen activity.
In addressing the impacts and issues highlighted above, and linked to the three underlying themes of the book, a future research agenda for international sports events is suggested. This agenda is centred on four key pillars: impact, identity, internationalisation and interdisciplinary research. Figure 1.1 illustrates a proposed theoretical framework for understanding international sports events, calling for future unique and innovative research that can reach policymakers, practitioners and participants alike.
Figure 1.1 A future research agenda for international sports events: The 4 Iās ā Impact, Identity, Internationalisation, Interdisciplinary
Participants, Practitioners, Places and Policymakers
In relation to the emerging research trends on sports events identified in the forthcoming chapters, there is an additional need for unique and innovative research that can reach the destinations (places) that host sports events, policymakers, practitioners and participants alike, and in doing so enhance the body of knowledge on the impacts, experiences and identities of sports events; the three underlying pillars of this book. In doing so, it is anticipated that this will have implications for participants (spectators/fans/active participants); practitioners (stakeholders/event organisers/national governing bodies and federations); policymakers (government/local authorities); and places (host destinations/countries). Aside from the three underlying themes for this book, and based on the concepts introduced in Chapters 2 to 16, it is suggested through the examples provided in the following chapters that future research should be focused on those four areas outlined below.
Participants
It is apparent from the empirical studies within this book that understanding participants is central to understanding sports events at local, regional, national and international levels. There is also a clear recognition of the extent to which people are impacted through the organisation of and participation in sports events, be it from the perspective of the active participant or the spectator/fan. As such, future research should also incorporate new, innovative research methods which add to our understanding of sports events. In relation to sports event experiences, the findings from this book will also illustrate the potential for future studies which might comprise the sports events experience with a focus on motivations, behaviours, satisfactions, perceptions, consumption, authenticity, lifestyles, or self-expression. In addition, the nature of the subject area being explored, āexperiencesā, is one that in future should encourage more interdisciplinary research from a diverse range of areas within the social sciences, such as anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, gender studies and sociology, to name but a few. The findings in the forthcoming chapters illustrate that sports events attract extraordinary and ordinary event participants and often result in a legacy of event experiences for those involved. Various chapters will demonstrate that international sports events have the ability to both converge communities and to bring nations together.
Practitioners
Several chapters identify the implications of their findings for industry practitioners. A clear message emerges within the book that further studies are required which work with stakeholders (coaches, community groups, volunteers, event planners, sport federations and clubs) to develop events while there is also a need to undertake research at sport events which deliver practical outcomes that are of re...
