Hosting Sport Events Research Articles

Sports Performance and Shaping International Image of a China: Towards Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

China is a country that has been using sport in order to reach political goals for many years. Lately such political exploitation of sport is directed at shaping the desirable international image of this country. This is done most of all through hosting sports events, but also through sports victories. The last aspect is the subject of this research. The aim of the article is therefore to investigate the issue of utilization of performance in international sport in order to enhance international image of a China. The research presented in the article is a case study concerning sport as a tool of nation-branding. Its main objective is to analyse motivation of China’s decision-makers to use sports performance in order to enhance the country’s international perception, and to observe how this goals is executed. The main hypothesis to be tested states that China perceives sports performance as an important tool of enhancing its international image.

Leveraging of Sport Events to Support Tourism in Egypt

Sport events attract large spectators from local residents and international tourists and provide worldwide media coverage. Nowadays, there is a great global competition among destinations for hosting sport events; accompanied by leverage programs. The phenomenon of event leverage maximizes both short and long-term outcomes. So sport event leverage involves planning long- term outcomes from such events, to promote tourism and develop local business, besides, short-term outcomes such as: visitation-related impacts. The research initiative focuses on tourists’ intentions to visit Egypt for attending a sport event. Moreover, the research implies to the benefits generated from sport events, which may support tourism in Egypt. To carry on with this research a questionnaire survey was conducted among non- sport tourists visiting Egypt. The findings identified some key factors that influence tourists’ intentions to visit Egypt for sport tourism. The research showed also that Egypt has the capabilities that allow it to compete strongly with other countries in both hosting and organizing sport events, as well as applying leverage programs to support tourism.

Upolitycznienie sportu jako następstwo konfrontacji politycznej państw

The paper is dedicated to the issue of the relations between sport and politics. Its aim is to explore examples of connections between sport and politics in the situation of conflicts between states. An attempt was made to indicate the ways in which political rivalry is transferred to the world of sport, as well as the aims of the states and the determinants of their actions. The analysis encompasses the following ways in which sport is used politically: competition in the Olympic Games medal ranking, desire to win prestigious contests, hosting sports events, participating in international sport and sports boycotts. As a result of the research, it was observed that assigning political meaning to sport in situations of political confrontation between states is connected either to the desire to enhance a nation’s prestige, or to hit other actors in international relations. It was also observed that non-democratic states particularly often use sport for political reasons.

Positive Effects of Sports Events: From Exaggeration to Reality

Although sports events are considered a new field for urban and economic development, besides certain advantages that are obtained by hosting sports events, there are also many dangers. Upon considering the effects of sports events, studies on low-accuracy sports events are heavily relied on. These analyses often exaggerate advantages, underestimate costs and make an improper use of statistics. It appears that there positive effects and especially, financial advantages of sports events have often been exaggerated so that financial profits are often estimated too high, and costs are understated. By considering existing evidences and literature, this study aims to find an answer for this question: How much true are the topics propounded as to the positive effects of sports events?

Develop a flexible method to assess buildings hosting major sports events environmentally through the world

Specific international institutions are responsible for managing and organizing major sports events besides choosing the hosting city for those events which is a difficult task, as there is a need for an appropriate decision using highly credible and justifiable mechanisms. Assessing the hosting city includes the assessment of sports buildings used in those events; however the diverse characteristics of countries aiming to host sports events raises the problem of obtaining fair environmental assessment results for the submitted projects. There are already a number of environmental assessment methods of buildings around the world and some were used to evaluate a group of major sports buildings in their countries. A particular version of Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) was used to assess the sports buildings hosting the Olympic Games in London 2012. However, it cannot be used outside England without the presence of several defects in the evaluation process, especially when dealing with different regional characteristics. Many countries are still without environmental assessment methods of their own, besides the unfairness in the comparison of results from available assessment methods among countries. Difficulty finding a standardized assessment method appears because of the spatial and temporal variables. The paper aims to show the importance of having a flexible method that could adapt to all the variables affecting environmental assessment of buildings with different characteristics and conditions of the countries hosting sports events as well as the different time periods, to get the utmost justifiable and precision results when choosing the hosting city.

Change of Attitudes and Country Image after Hosting Major Sport Events

Although a change of country image in general is a rather long process (Kuvykaite & Kerbelyte, 2008), hosting sports events may contribute to changing a country’s image. When governments and cities host major sports events like the Olympics it is partly because such events are perceived as a means to promote the image of the host. The cost of an event like the Olympics is considerable, and in most cases the local and/or the national government has to pick up the lion’s share of the bill. The Norwegian government sponsored the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics by more than one billion euro. The Summer Olympics are even more expensive, and as an example the South Korean government spent more than three billion US dollar on the 1988 Summer Olympics according to Nebenzahl and Jaffe (1991). A report released in 2002 stipulates that the NSW government in Australia spent more than one billion dollars on the 2000 Olympic Games in Sidney. Therefore, it is very important to know if these investments of money and effort change the image of the hosting country. This study presents the effects of the Torino (Turin) 2006 Winter Olympics on the image of Italy in Lithuania. Two random samples of students at major Lithuanian universities were selected. Students were interviewed because they are part of society, which are very interested in sports events like Olympics. The first sample consisted of 297 respondents and was collected before the Winter Olympics in Torino. The second sample consisted of 346 respondents and was collected after the event. There is no consensus among scholars regarding the country image concept. The understanding of the nature of this phenomenon varies in terms of target group (investors, students, visitors, etc.). By synthesizing various approaches Laroche, Papadopulos, Helsop, & Mourali (2005) define three main country image dimensions: cognitive, affective and conative. However, little research has been conducted to test it. This research tested the following country image dimensions: image of the people in the country, image of the societal system and the level of animosity towards the country. The following three general hypotheses have been formulated: H1: Animosity dimension of country image is influenced by a major sport event such as Winter Olympics. H2: Societal dimension of country image is influenced by a major sport event such as Winter Olympics. H3: People dimension of country image is influenced by a major sport event such as Winter Olympics. The research results indicate that the Animosity dimension of Italy after the Olympics changed negatively which means that Lithuanian students got less favourable impression of Italy. The other two hypotheses were not supported. Several factors contribute to the explanation of the research results: there was a lot of negative press concerning the logistics of the games, the Torino Olympics chose the slogan ‘Passion lives here’ and then failed to show any according to their polls: there were few inspired spectators at some of the events.

스포츠이벤트 참가자의 소비지출결정 요인 분석

A variety of benefits from hosting sport events have been recognized through research, and thus tons of interest in hosting varied sport event have increased continuously throughout both regional and central government. In this context, this study was initiated to analyze determinants of sport event participants` expenditure. In specific, purposes of study embraced 1) differences in amount of sport event participants` spending on demographic characteristics, 2) differences in amount of sport event participants` spending on consumption patterns and 3) influential factors of event satisfaction on event participants` expenditure. In questionnaire survey, a total of 600 sport event participants were selected with convenience sampling methods in the sites of a national sport for all event. And, 518 usable questionnaires were utilized for data analyses. ANOVA and multiple regression analysis revealed following results. First, significant differences existed in amount of spending on demographic characteristics such as gender, age, education, occupation and income levels. Second, significant differences existed in amount of event participants` spending on consumption patterns including number of accompany, type of transportation and length of stay. Finally, sport event participants` satisfaction factors such as benefits and services had significant effects on expenditure.