Eat Cambridge (2014) Economic/Social Impact and Innovation Report

Incorporating the views across 29 food and drink traders, this study attempts to look at the local economic and social impacts of the Eat Cambridge 2014 festival, and explore the ways local traders marketed and innovated in light of, and during, the festival. The study: disseminated via an online survey asked 15 questions, hosts a mix of open (qualitative) and closed (quantitative) questions, and are thus split in to two key areas of this report: - Responses to closed questions (3.0) - Responses to open questions (4.0) Findings from the closed questions identified that there was strong agreement that the festival provided opportunities to (1) expand the customer bases; (2) built business to business (B2B) relationships; (3) provided a platform to market their business; (4) helped consider new marketing techniques, and (5) consider, in future, hosting fringe events to stimulate footfall. Although throughout the closed questions a high number of traders reported an economic boost to their businesses, the open question responses revealed, that for most traders, being part of the festival meant much more than a short-term economic boost. The report highlighted the added complexities, and positive outcomes of being part of such a large networked communicative festival. Indeed being part helped to ‘stimulate new business’; ‘enhance business profile’; reach ‘wider audiences’ and ‘expand’ customer base both locally and regionally to capture new and existing foody audiences. However, the study reported stories of e.g. (1) specific B2B collaborations and formation of networks; (2) festival as a platform to test and launch new products; (3) identifying new ways to engage with customers; (4) promoted a shift in customer buying behavior from ‘chain’ to ‘local trader’ and promote more generally the local food and drink scene in and around Cambridge. Interestingly, there is a strong dominant role for Twitter and social networks within this report and the festival as a whole, and the role in which ‘@EatCambridge’ as festival organisers could-should play in helping to promote local traders in light of and during festival time on Twitter

Rethinking Events Over Thirty Years of Research

Events are often pitched as business opportunities for the tourism and hospitality sector, but look deeper, and a far more compelling narrative emerges. In examining thirty years of events-related research, Dr. Michael Duignan of UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management has uncovered a highly complex and emerging field of study with significant value for the sector. It is also attracting the eye of researchers from other disciplines looking for insights into why people are drawn to share experiences

Trivandi: Creating Spectacular and Meaningful Guest Experiences

In an insightful interview with James Bulley OBE, CEO of Trivandi, Dr. Michael B. Duignan learns about Trivandi\u27s \u27One Team\u27 approach and their aim to push the boundaries in event and venue delivery

Promoting Accessible Tourism at Mega-Events: Bridging the Disability-attitude Gap

UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management\u27s Associate Professor Michael B. Duignan and Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, Alan Fyall collaborated with a team of fellow researchers to examine Tokyo 2020\u27s potential to challenge ableist norms. Highlighting Japan\u27s efforts to promote inclusive tourism for Persons with Disabilities (PwD), their collaborative study highlights the tourism sector\u27s ongoing gaps. They argue that mega-events like the Olympics can be pivotal in driving inclusivity, addressing both physical and social barriers. Dive into this revealing examination of the interplay between tourism, events, and societal change

Accommodating (global-glocal) paradoxes across event planning

The aim of this research note is threefold: 1) to introduce the concept of paradox and its numerous applications to the study and management challenges associated with the planning and delivery of events, with a specific look at large-scale events like the Olympics to provide an extreme case; 2) to present a new paradox entitled the Global–Glocal Paradox that interrogates how inherent global and local stakeholder interests and tensions are managed; and 3) to present a series of conceptual and practical ways events can accommodate as opposed to resolve this paradox to help balance stakeholder interests instead of pitting one against the other

Events as catalysts for communal resistance to overtourism

The negative impacts of tourism, often associated with overtourism, can lead to resistance by local stakeholders. This study focuses on collective resistance across Japan in the lead up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, during a period of exponential growth in tourism that produced disruption and fear, and led to a rise in tourismophobia. We conceptualise negative reactions through Castells' theory of the network society. Utilising qualitative data, we argue that Japan's national tourism growth strategy represented a state-imposed legitimising identity, leading to communal resistance sentiment and tactics across Japan and Tokyo. We illustrate how events act as catalysts for opposition against tourism development and how resistance identities can produce a new project and counter-legitimising identity tourism planners should take seriously

Regulatory Informality Across Olympic Event Zones

Olympic event zones are characterised as being intensely formally regulated during live staging periods, producing exclusionary environments blamed for side-lining host community interests. Yet, our findings contradict what scholars perceive to be inflexible formal regulations, and, the regulator’s ability to take informal action. By interviewing and drawing on the experience of 17 regulators during London 2012 we identify how regulators simultaneously oscillate between modes of regulatory formality and informality, straddling what is referred to as the ‘formality-informality span’. Our application and theorisation of these concepts critiques existing explanations of how regulation is enacted in mega-sporting events, providing new insights into the way organisers balance regulatory demands and potentially opening up new emancipatory policies and more equitable outcomes for host communities