Sports mega-events as part of a nation's soft power strategy: The cases of Germany (2006) and the UK (2012)

The potential positive impact on a nation's image has moved from being a welcome consequence to a significant justification for investing in hosting sports mega-events. Mobilising Joseph Nye's concept of 'soft power' we empirically investigate Germany's strategic use of a sports 'mega' (the 2006 FIFA World Cup) to successfully alter their image among 'foreign publics'. We then analyse the example of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games for Britain's international prestige. For both cases we draw on and analyse official government documents and newspaper sources written before and after the Games. The findings reveal the stark contrast between Germany's and Britain's sport and 'soft power' strategies: the former undertook a long-term, well-planned and resourced approach to altering its poor international image; the latter appeared far less concerned about capitalising on the Olympics to enhance Britain's (seemingly robust) international image

Measuring the Economic Impact of Australian Tourism Marketing

The objective of this study is to quantify the effects of marketing expenditure by the Australian Tourist Commission (ATC). Cointegration analysis and a dynamic modelling approach are used to estimate the elasticity estimates of income, price, price of substitute, cost of travel and marketing expenditure for Australia’s four major tourism markets, USA, Japan, UK and New Zealand. ATC marketing expenditure has a positive effect on international tourism demand and the magnitude of the effect varies from country to country. In promoting international visitor arrivals to Australia, not only ATC and non-ATC marketing but the word-of-mouth effect and visitor satisfaction leading to repeat visits also play an important role. The performance of the ATC marketing strategy measured in dollar return per dollar invested in the international tourism marketing is higher in the New Zealand market, followed by the UK, Japan and US markets. The estimated overall average dollar return per dollar invested in international tourism marketing is 8:1

The market viability of European mass tourist destinations. A post‐stagnation life‐cycle analysis

First generation European mass tourist resorts, defined as those that developed in the north of the continent up to and including the first half of this century, have shown a variety of responses to impending decline within the post‐stagnation phase of their life‐cycle, much as predicted in the tourist area life‐cycle (TALC) model. There have been winners and losers, as some destinations have diversified their local economies and others have accepted gradual contraction, whereas a select few have maintained a competitive edge through product investment and reorientation to new markets. For the second generation of European mass tourist resorts, those high density tourist areas that emerged in the Mediterranean in the 1960s, the evolutionary life‐cycle has, to date, been of a much shorter duration. The period from exploration to stagnation has lasted a mere 30 years, sometimes less. The nature of these resorts, whereby rapid development has created a tourism monoculture, means that the onset of decline has far more dramatic implications to local economies when compared with first generation resorts. Unfortunately, although strategic planning initiatives are now (belatedly) being practised, it is likely that rejuvenation will only be short‐lived due in most cases to the inherent structural weaknesses of these resorts. Their legacy is one of overdevelopment and environmental scarring, they rely too heavily on price as a marketing tool in an increasingly quality conscious market, and the powers of promotion and distribution remain largely in the hands of northern European mass consolidators (tour operators), with little commerical incentive for customer loyalty. This paper thus predicts a pessimistic post‐stagnation scenario for most second generation Mediterranean mass market resorts

Korean inbound tourism to Australia - A study of supply-side deficencies

This paper discusses the need for supply-side analysis of inbound tourism and argues that reliance on demand-side only projections of market trends is insufficient. The paper discusses the results of a survey of 351 Korean visitors returning from Group Inclusive package holidays to Australia. Visitor characteristics and their reaction to their experiences in Australia were gathered and are assessed. Findings of the survey are analysed from the perspective of identifying and classifying visitor responses to the Australian tourism industry’s supply of visitor goods and services. Deficiencies such as language, transport deficiencies, itinerary construction and shopping are identified and discussed, and possible remedial measures highlighted. Findings indicate that these issues will need to be addressed if Australia’s expectations of continued large annual increases in Korean inbound tourism is to be maintained over the next decade