EXPLORING EVENT TOURISM STRATEGIES - A CASE STUDY OF FOUR NORDIC TOURISM ORGANISATIONS
Abstract
As tourism is one of the fastest growing industries today, thus within the
tourism industry events are getting more and more important. People have
become more interested in events of all kinds, and will travel far away to
participate in events that they find interesting. Events can offer various
economical and social benefits for destinations, and therefore destination
managers can and should employ events effectively in a tourism role.
It has become widely accepted that every community and destination needs
to adopt a long-term, strategic approach to event tourism thereby planning
and development in order to realise the full tourism potential of events. This
study was launched as a response to the lack of studies on how event
tourism strategies are actually used in destinations. The study was directed to
four Nordic tourism organisations, and the aim was to explore how these
organisations work strategically with events.
The main findings of the study indicate that although tourism organisations
have increasingly realised the potential and importance of events, the extent
to which events are used strategically in tourism organisations varies. Some
tourism organisations have integrated events deep into their overall tourism
strategies, and events form their own business area and have their own
business strategy. In other cases events are included in the overall tourism
strategies, however, the work with events is rather haphazard and other
business areas are prioritised.
At the end of the study a model that describes how event tourism strategy
development in tourism organisations can be seen to follow certain stages is
developed. In relation to the model, the study suggests that the stage to
which tourism organisations have come in relation to strategic event tourism
management depends on factors such as the ownership structure and
resource base of tourism organisations, city involvement in relation to
events, and the capacity and events infrastructure of destinations.
Degree
Student essay
University
Göteborg University. School of Business, Economics and Law
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2005Author
Sarrivaara, Emmi
Klemm, Päivi
Anttonen, Roosa
Keywords
Events
Strategy
Tourism Organisations
Event Tourism Strategy
Series/Report no.
Masters Thesis, nr 2004:59
Language
en