Tourism Legacy Research Articles

Detecting the Olympic tourism legacy: a data-driven approach

ABSTRACT This research applies a data-driven approach for identifying changes in time series to model the Olympic tourism legacy. Measuring potential legacy effects from mega-sporting events has been problematic in prior research. Issues revolve around how to measure tourism, how to control for pre-existing trends, and how to account for extraneous events affecting tourism unrelated to the Olympics. Most problematic for analytical models is determining when the tourism legacy begins and what is the functional form of the tourism legacy. Many of these issues interact and can confound results leading to erroneous conclusions. The seminal methodology developed by Tsay [(1988). Outliers, level shifts, and variance changes in time series. Journal of Forecasting, 7(1), 1–20] requires no prior assumption about the timing or functional forms of the outliers, therefore solving these issues and provides a framework that can be used when analysing mega-sporting event legacies. Using this methodology, the research finds limited support for a short-term Olympic tourism legacy and no support for a long-term tourism legacy.

MICE tourism legacies: The International Conference on Responsible Tourism and Hospitality (ICRTH) 2022

MICE tourism legacies have become more important as these business events explore ways to give back to their respective host destinations. The purpose of this viewpoint is to unpack how such MICE tourism legacies can be operationalized, as applied to the context of an international conference. Drawing from extant literature surrounding MICE tourism legacies, the International Conference on Responsible Tourism and Hospitality (ICRTH) is an example of how such legacies can shift from a narrow focus to broader stakeholder benefits, nudge passive engagement toward more active forms of participation, mobilities from urban to rural environments, enhancing education outcomes for better empowerment opportunities, and revenge travel proclivities to a more responsible MICE tourism stance. Collectively, these exemplars inform other conferences as to how such MICE tourism legacies can manifest elsewhere.

A Pre-Game Evaluation of the Tourism Legacy Of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games

The role of tourism in social and economic development and stabilizing the Olympic legacy has been widely discussed. Beijing is the first “Dual-Olympic City”. For the first time, the Beijing Winter Olympics has adopted a model of three competition areas, which has attracted much attention to the study of its tourism legacy. In the legacy plan, the construction of the “Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports Culture and Tourism Belt” was proposed. The development of ice and snow tourism and the cultivation of the ice and snow tourism market is also reflected in many policy documents and government actions. The scientific planning before the competition laid a good foundation for the sustainable development of its ice and snow tourism heritage. This research combines Olympic legacy research with tourism destination theory, and focuses on ice and snow tourism directly related to the Winter Olympics and the significance of pre-event planning for legacy protection. At the same time, the improvement of the quality of ice and snow tourism destinations is embedded in the pre-Olympic legacy, and opinions and suggestions on how to ensure the stability of the legacy after the games are given. This study uses the literature review method and the second-hand materials survey research method, then through establishing a tourism legacy pre-game evaluation model and the use of geographic information, government reports, policies, publicly released statistics and news reports, etc.. It explores the legacy of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, aiming to lay the foundation for preserving the continuous value of the ice and snow tourism legacy during and after the Olympics. The results indicate that the Beijing Winter Olympics has made relatively complete plans and reliable progress in both tangible and intangible legacy. Complete tourism infrastructure, an optimistic sport and cultural atmosphere, and the improvement of residents' health concept and sports awareness have become boosters for the development of ice and snow tourism in the Beijing-Zhangjiakou region.

‘Come alive in ’85’: the Isle of Man Year of Sport, the first Island Games, and the shifting sands of sport event tourism

ABSTRACT This article examines 1985's Isle of Man Year of Sport, an attempt by political leadership in the British crown dependency to host and create a series of sporting events which would serve as a platform to help reverse the dramatic decline of UK and Irish holidaymakers. To Manx parliamentarians and policymakers, sport provided a logical starting point for attracting tourists due to the island’s association with the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) motorcycle road races, even though holding a Commonwealth Games in the island – a desired option – was considered unfeasible. The Isle of Man Government was additionally pursuing a strategy of themed ‘years’ to provide events to stimulate tourism. The Year of Sport’s events included the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, the Isle of Man Special Olympics, and academic conferences. Its longest lasting contribution to sport, however, has been the first Island Games (known here as the Inter-Island Games), held every two years since (with the exception of 2021) in small-island polities/‘nations’ on the Atlantic Rim. The Year of Sport was reflective of both small-island politics and of an emerging (if debatable) consensus in tourism and sport management circles about the tourism legacies, inclusive of soft power, of sporting events.

A Case of Leveraging a Mega-Sport Event for a Sport Participation and Sport Tourism Legacy: A Prospective Longitudinal Case Study of Whistler Adaptive Sports

Sport participation legacies are often offered as reasons to host mega-sport events, yet there is little evidence to demonstrate the claim’s legitimacy, thus we examine “What did Whistler Sports do to leverage the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to facilitate a sport tourism legacy?”. Through a prospective longitudinal case study of WAS and application of the temporal extension of the socioecological framework, multiple data sources were analyzed from over a decade beginning before the event until 2019. The findings reveal the situated and embedded nature of mega-sport event legacies i.e., context. These depend upon a network of facilitators such as local, provincial, and federal policies; pre-event and post-event vision and strategies from local communities and sport organizations; the development of a pool of willing and flexible volunteers. Together these were strategically leveraged to overcome sport participation and sport tourism barriers for people with disabilities. The sport, tourism, and sport tourism experience reflected Whistler’s natural and infrastructure advantage and the needs and desires of locals and visitors with access needs that could not have occurred without the capital injection of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Leveraging the mega-sport event opportunities required leadership and a strategic vision for repositioning to a year-round program. This strategic change also opened new sport and sport tourism opportunities for current participants but importantly brought new participants and their friendship groups to Whistler over the post-event decade for year-round sustainable adaptive sport opportunities.

Measuring event experience and its behavioral consequences in the context of a sports mega-event

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the impact of event experience on event satisfaction and intentions to return and recommend the destination.Design/methodology/approachRelationships among constructs were tested on data gathered from 542 tourists during the America's Cup World Series held in South Italy in April 2013 by using a structural equation modeling approach. Moreover, a multigroup analysis was developed to test the possible moderator factors.FindingsThe results revealed that event experience and event satisfaction had positive impacts on the intentions to recommend and return to the host destination. Moreover, nationality, gender and trip motivation emerged as important moderating factors in the relationships among the latent constructs.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this paper enrich the existing literature and help tourism destination marketers and managers consider the triggering factors of a satisfying mega-sports event for the host destination and the marketing power of the on-site experience.Practical implicationsPractitioners should draw on the insights provided by this study to design destination strategies, particularly by paying attention to how an event experience causes an attendee to return to and recommend the host destination.Originality/valueThis study enriches the existing event literature in several ways. First, it emphasizes the importance of the event experience to the satisfaction level and willingness to return and recommend the host destination for a vacation, supporting the link between an event and its destination. Second, it provides a moderating analysis that offers new insights for marketing the event experience. It offers a multilevel model of mega-event tourism legacy, which opens up new avenues of research. Third, complementing the consumer-based analysis, this research includes the trend of visits (after 2013 to the present) to examine how a mega-sport event has brought about more postevent visits.

Competitiveness, economic legacy and tourism impacts: World Cup

Tourism legacy impacts are considered one of the most important reasons for countries host a mega event. They generate short, medium and, long-term legacies in the destination image, as well as, at economic and sociocultural level. The paper objective is to show the short-term evolution of economic legacies indicators of sports mega-events, two years before and two years after each event. It was verified through an exploratory analysis of tourism employment level, total investment, and Tourism GDP of the countries that hosted the last three FIFA World Cups. Also, it analyzes the country’s competitive strengths at the year that the mega-event happened based on the Tourism & Travel Competitiveness Index pillars (TTCI). Thus, it performed an explanatory and descriptive analysis of secondary data. Literature review points out the infrastructure as the central pillar to receive a sports mega-event. However, the results did not indicate this focus in the last countries chosen. Also, the economic legacies had increased after the sports mega-event, but not in all hosts analyzed. Therefore, the assumption of positive effects generated by sports mega-events is not consolidated. Further research is recommended to establish indicators and approaches the impact on the host country by a mega-event from the legacy perspective.

The international tourism effect of hosting the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup

This study analyzes whether hosting mega-sporting events is a useful marketing platform for countries to promote international tourism on a longer term basis. Our model adopts the gravity equation of international trade to bilateral international tourist arrivals. We find a country-level tourism effect only for the Summer Olympic Games. Hosting increases international tourist arrivals significantly in the 8 years before, during, and in the 20 years after the event. In contrast, hosting the FIFA World Cup is overall ineffective in tourism promotion despite higher tourist arrivals in the event year. We attribute these differences in international tourism legacy to the level of strategic planning in promoting tourism, the impact of media on the broadcasting audience, and the participating countries.

An empirical test of the Olympic tourism legacy

ABSTRACTInternational tourism legacies are a key justification for hosting the Olympics. Although strong theoretical arguments have been made to support the tourism legacy, empirically measuring the effect has been problematic. Strong arguments for enhancing the legacy effect through the proper leveraging of the Olympics by means such as positive media coverage exist. This research empirically tests for the legacy effect and whether leveraging the Olympics by exposing potential tourists to more media enhances the legacy effect. The data used in this research are monthly international air passenger arrivals for nine Olympic host cities. A time series methodology that controls for problems noted in prior studies such as pre-existing trends, external events, seasonality, and crowding out is incorporated. The results show little evidence to support the legacy effect in the short run.

Support of Local Residents for the 2016 Olympic Games

Drawing on social exchange theory, this research explores and describes the structural relationships among (a) expectations of multidimensional positive legacy, (b) evaluations of the government work in preparation for staging, and (c) support of local residents for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. We proposed and tested a direct-effects model against an alternative partially mediated model, based on the data provided by a multistage (neighborhoods, residences, residents) stratified random sample of Rio de Janeiro's residents (n = 900). Results showed that the expectations of positive legacies can work either as a mediator between evaluations of government work and residents' support or as a factor that directly affects intentions to support, with no antecedents being necessary. At the moment of the research, Rio residents seemed a little skeptical of the government work and positive legacies for the country and, consequently, only moderately support the 2016 Olympic Games in the city. Lower income residents offer less support than higher income ones. Higher expectations are placed on tourism legacy, while lower expectations are on environmental legacy.

The 2012 Olympic Ambassadors and sustainable tourism legacy

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the capacity of the London (2012) Olympic Ambassador volunteer programmes to create a sustainable tourism legacy. It contributes to the literature on event legacies, particularly the role of volunteers promoting tourism in their home destination. Using an exploratory inductive approach, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted, in 2012 and 2013, with managers of all 11 Ambassador volunteer programmes associated with London and the 10 other regional venues that hosted London Olympic and Paralympic Games events. These show that volunteer Ambassadors enhanced tourist experiences during the Games through the Ambassadors’ pride in their home city, enthusiasm and local knowledge. However, although the Ambassador programmes had aspirations to create a sustainable legacy, in the form of a pool of experienced volunteers to support future events and further tourist visits, this was severely constrained by cuts in local government budgets. The Government Olympic Executive provided a coordinating role leading up to the Games, but neither they nor the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games provided practical assistance for legacy development. This was a missed opportunity to channel the enthusiasm of mega-event volunteers into further volunteering to promote tourism.

Megaeventos Esportivos: Uma Reflexão sobre os Legados da Uefa Eurocopa

This essay conducted a literature review of the legacy of sports mega-events, emphasizing the UEFA European Championship. In order to review the academic literature about the subject, we used the following keywords: legacies; sports mega-events and its legacies; UEFA European Championship; and their corresponding terms in Spanish and Portuguese. It was also reviewed some important research basis: Annals; BVS; DOAJ; EBSCO; REDALYC; Periodicos CAPES; PubMed; Scielo; Scopus; Science Direct; and, Scholar Google. The results were analyzed by categories. Regarding the sport mega-event Eurocopa, it was found that the tourism legacies, the economics impacts and the social aspect have been discussed more often, as well as projections and predictions of events that will occur later. It was also concluded that most of the articles shows an absence of discussion about the negative impacts of sports mega-events . It is therefore recommended to use standard methods with comparisons of results and longitudinal studies to better understand the impacts and the use of legacy.

Support of politicians for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

The purpose of this research was to explore and describe politicians’ evaluations of the work done by the government, perceptions of legacy and support for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. The literature has argued that organisers must know in advance the opinion of main stakeholders in order to plan, organise and stage sport mega-events which are going to leave important legacy to the hosts. Considering politicians have privileged information about costs and benefits of sport mega-events, they are more likely than any other group of stakeholders to be able to make rational choices about social exchanges related to such events. Social exchange theory provided the theoretical background to test a structural model, where evaluations of the work done and perceptions of legacy were antecedents of support. Out of 715 politicians, 13 senators, 40 congressmen, six Rio state representatives and five Rio city councillors took part into a survey responding a questionnaire. Controlling for political affiliation of respondents, the tourism legacy was evaluated as the most likely to happen, while the environmental legacy was evaluated as the least likely to stay after the games. Political affiliation affected the evaluation of the work of the government, but not perceptions about positive legacies and support. Overall, politicians’ support depends on evaluations of the work of the government and perceptions of legacy.

Conceptualising Olympic tourism legacy: destination marketing organisations and Vancouver 2010

Hosting an Olympic Games is expected to generate tourism legacies for the host city, region, and country well beyond the event. Since a host city's tourism industry plays an important role in delivering wider economic benefits to the city and region, tourism legacies feature prominently in proponents' attempts to legitimise the public expenditure required to bid for and host an Olympic Games. Despite inconsistencies in conceptualisations of the Olympic legacy in both academic literature and industry practice, destination marketers continue to be charged with formulating strategies to leverage an Olympic Games for tourism benefits. A qualitative and interpretive case study approach was used to examine how destination marketers in Vancouver, as well as those at the provincial and federal levels of government, conceptualised the Olympic tourism legacy. Results show that destination marketers' conceptualisations of legacy vary depending on their mandates as well as the needs and aspirations of their destination. The study also highlights the importance of a collaborative approach in developing leveraging strategies for a host city, region, and country.

The Nation-Branding Legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup for South Africa

There has been a growing awareness of the potentially significant impact that hosting sport mega-events, such as the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, can have on a nation's brand. Within the broader context of nation branding, this article explores the specific tourism legacy that may be achieved from sport mega-events and details an exploratory investigation that aimed to identify brand perceptions and changes in perceptions of international visitors to South Africa during the mega-event. The tourism legacy of the event appears to be the degree to which brand perceptions of travelers changed and formed as a result of visiting the nation. The value of these changed perceptions manifests in important behavioral intentions, such as repeat visitation and positive word-of-mouth promotion. The study concludes that mega-events provide an opportunity to elicit tourism legacies for a nation, especially in terms of nation-brand development for the host.

Culture and the 2012 Games: creating a tourism legacy?

The role of tourism in delivering wider economic legacies is strongly stated in recent national tourism policy documents. The Olympic Games are envisaged to have the legacy impact of ‘4 million extra visitors’ and ‘50,000 extra jobs’ over 4 years (DCMS (2011). Government Tourism Policy, p. 15). This paper considers the nature of Olympic tourism and the possible contribution of the Cultural Olympiad to developing a cultural tourism legacy. It does this by investigating local perceptions of culture and local cultural enactments in the London Borough of Hackney, one of the five boroughs surrounding the Olympic Park. This research shows that local cultural enactments and programming connected to the Olympics are largely motivated by a wider social agenda. They are funded by a wide variety of arts, social and youth programmes and largely reflect initiatives and projects that were already in place in the Borough. While there is an acceptance that cultural events might stimulate the visitor economy, specific discourses around ‘tourism’ and ‘tourists’ are not expressed by the people engaged in the local process.

Measuring the Socio‐Economic Legacies of Mega‐events: Concepts, Propositions and Indicators

ABSTRACTLegacies have become a key rationale underpinning the bidding process for hosting mega‐events. These long‐term effects are deemed to hold benefits and costs, and measurement is important. However, there is limited theory or empirical evidence on legacy impacts. In this article, the literature on legacies of mega‐events is reviewed and event tourism isolated to develop an interdisciplinary conceptual model to measure tourism legacies, and develop propositions on measurement issues. This paper develops a framework of key indicators, propositions and measures to evaluate socio‐economic legacies, which will support event organizers and decision makers to formulate policies for improving event legacies. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An exogenous shock to the system? The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and British tourism policy

This paper explores the impact of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games on British tourism policy development and delivery using an archival documentary review of 54 documents (dated 1999–2010) relating to strategy for tourism, identified from searches of the archives of 23 public sector organisations and government departments in Britain. The paper draws on the literature on policy communities and networks to categorise the British tourism policy community as a loosely formed issue network. The extent to which this loosely formed issue network has experienced an ‘exogenous shock’ as a result of the award of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to London is then explored through an interpretive analysis of British tourism policy between 1999 and June 2010, drawing on an inductive content analysis of policy documents which identified four prominent tourism policy themes for analysis: quality, marketing, niche markets and sustainability. The interpretive analysis suggests, first, that the tourism policy community may be strengthened as a result of the award of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to London. In particular, the political imperative to demonstrate a tourism legacy as a partial justification for the £9.3bn public investment in the 2012 Games has drawn the key government actor, the Department for Culture Media and Sport, into the community to provide a more comprehensive strategic leadership, while the British non-departmental public body, Visit Britain, is showing signs of achieving the legitimacy to deliver implementational leadership. Together, these two actors now appear to have the potential to form an emergent primary core at the same time as more meaningful interdependencies between members of the policy community appear to be developing, resulting in a more stable membership. The result is a tourism policy community that has strengthened from its relatively long-standing structure as a loosely constituted issue zone. The conclusion, therefore, is that it appears that the award of the 2012 Games to London does appear to have acted as an ‘exogenous shock’ to the tourism policy-making system, in that it appears to have resulted in an adjustment in the structure of the tourism policy community. However, what is not clear is whether this is a permanent adjustment that will be sustained once the need to demonstrate a tourism legacy to justify the 9.3bn investment in the 2012 Games has passed. If the adjustment can be sustained, then a strengthened British tourism policy community will be a valuable, if invisible, legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Appalachians all: East Tennesseans and the elusive history of an American region

Appalachians intertwines the histories of three communities--Knoxville with its urban life, Cades Cove with its farming, logging, tourism legacies, the Clearfork Valley with its coal production--to tell a larger story of East Tennessee its inhabitants. Combining a perceptive account of how industrialization shaped developments in these communities since the Civil War with a heartfelt reflection on identity, Mark Banker provides a significant new regional history with implications that extend well beyond East Tennessee's boundaries. Writing with the keen eye of a native son who left the area only to return years later, Banker uses elements of his own autobiography to underscore the ways in which East Tennesseans, particularly successful urban dwellers, often distance themselves from an identity. This understandable albeit regrettable response, Banker suggests, diminishes demeans both the individual region, making stereotypically Appalachian conditions self-perpetuating. Whether exploring grassroots activism in the Clearfork Valley, the agrarian traditions subsequent displacement of Cades Cove residents, or Knoxvillians' efforts to promote trade, tourism, industry, Banker's detailed historical excursions reveal not only a profound richness complexity in the East Tennessee experience but also a profound interconnectedness. Synthesizing the extensive research revisionist interpretations of Appalachia that have emerged over the last thirty years, Banker offers a new lens for constructively viewing East Tennessee its past. He challenges readers to reconsider ideas that have long diminished the region to re-imagine Appalachia. And ultimately, while Appalachians All speaks most directly to East Tennesseans other residents, it also carries important lessons for any reader seeking to understand the crucial connections between history, self, place. Mark T. Banker, a history teacher at Webb School of Knoxville, resides on the farm where he was raised in nearby Roane County. He earned his PhD at the University of New Mexico is the author of Missions Cultural Interaction in the Far Southwest, 1850-1950. His articles have appeared in the of Presbyterian History, Journal of the West, OAH Magazine of History, and Journal.

Mega‐events tourism legacies: the case of the Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games – a territorialisation approach

This paper examines the impact of mega‐events such as the Olympic Games on tourism development in host territories. In the first part, we adopt a territorialisation approach to understand the relationship between the event and the host region. A mega‐event is conceived as a great chance to generate new territory as it produces both tangible and intangible legacies that remain after the event ends: renewal of facilities for hospitality and accommodation, better infrastructures, better training for people in the tourism business, and improvement in international visibility. These legacies can represent a platform for future tourism development if local policies demonstrate the ability to re‐territorialise a mega‐event’s temporary transforming effects on tourism into long‐lasting ones. The paper then focuses on the case of Torino 2006. Moving from an overview to recent tourism data, some considerations of the post‐event trends in the Olympic territory are proposed. Thus, the paper highlights several critical aspects for a re‐territorialisation of the Olympic legacies and for tourism policies that can sustain the positive effects of the event over the long term.