Issues, Patterns and Strategies in the Development of Event Portfolios: Configuring Models, Design and Policy

Whilst the use of event portfolios as a multi-purpose policy tool is increasing worldwide, academic attention on this phenomenon remains sparse. In response, the purpose of this review paper is to identify the major issues in the use of portfolios by host communities and destinations aspiring to become eventful and delineate the emergent development patterns and strategies. The paper postulates the core dynamics that can enable capacity-building in event portfolio development and suggests a network framework for setting up a holistic portfolio policy with systemic management properties. This framework provides a theoretical scaffolding to contextualize the first formalized city portfolio strategies. Based on this discussion, four major issues are identified: portfolio configurations, leveraging, sustainability, and community capacity-building. Policy implications are drawn that theorize the surfacing portfolio development models, design logics and strategic approaches. The effects on social structures are considered in terms of how they determine the longevity, legitimation, and institutional embeddedness of event portfolios. The paper proffers that event portfolios represent a multi-dimensional phenomenon and highly versatile policy tool with manifold configurations. Their sustainable growth requires a shift in event-tourism thinking from the hitherto focus on single major events to managing multiple events for achieving multiple purposes

Tourism policy and residents' well-being in Cyprus: Opportunities and challenges for developing an inside-out destination management approach

The paper explores how Cyprus can increase its competitiveness, sustaining its magnitude and attractive attributes, and ensuring residents’ well-being. The study evaluates the suitability of an ‘inside-out’ planning approach to island tourism development. Eleven interviews were conducted with tourism policy-makers and stakeholders complemented by documentary analysis of official policy sources.Findings indicate that Cyprus tourism policy addresses only indirectly residents’ well-being, and therefore a policy re-orientation focusing on local prosperity is needed. It is proposed that an ‘inside-out’ approach stemming from the kind of development that locals want for improving their quality of life can foster islands’ socio-cultural revitalisation. An ‘inside-out’ approach can redirect Cyprus tourism policy to focus on alternative forms of tourism such as rural/special interest tourism. However, to reconfigure its tourism product, Cyprus should remedy the ‘top-down’ and bureaucratic planning processes that create challenges for the sustainable development of tourism. The adoption of an ‘inside-out’ approach can enable‘bottom-up’ decision-making by empowering residents to partake in local communities’ tourism planning intending to improve life quality. Broadly, these conditions need to be further examined within the context of small island destinations in order to find the means for implementing their repositioning/rebranding driven by a local focus aimed at enhancing residents’ wellbeing

Event Planning and Leveraging for Sport Tourism Development: The Case of a Rural Motorcycle Event

This case study focuses on planning and leveraging sport events for community-based sport tourism and economic development. It is presented from the point of view of a sport event/marketing coordinator (Ian) within the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) of the fictional rural community of Panorama. He has been assigned to write a report about the potential of organizing (and leveraging) a new motorcycle event tapping into the unparalleled success and experience of two car open road races that the town hosts. Ian is a recent sport management graduate who has just been hired by CVB and hence knows little about the community and its events. He begins preparing his report by collecting information and taking notes in order to understand the community dynamics affecting events and learn from the races with the purpose of identifying what would be the best means to attain benefits from the proposed new event. Drawing upon the theoretical underpinnings of sport event leverage and multi-purpose event portfolios, the case provides the opportunity for students to apply these tenets on a realistic context, taking them through a research path of gradual exploration and discovery of issues and means entailed in event portfolio planning and leveraging

The Emergence of ‘Small-scale’ Sport Events in 'Small Island’ Developing States: Towards Creating Sustainable Outcomes for Island Communities

Although academic literature has examined sport events in urban and rural communities, there is limited research on the forces and dynamics that influence the sustainability of sport events in islands. Cyprus represents a small island developing state with an embryonic event industry, which poses the question whether the emergence of new events can contribute to its sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of two nascent sport events: the “Limassol Marathon” and the “Tour of Cyprus Cycling Challenge,” focusing on their prospects for creating strategic outcomes that can contribute to the sustainability and rejuvenation of Cyprus as a tourism destination. The study employed a triangulation research technique through the application of mixed methods, conducting first semistructured interviews with event organizers, and thereafter a survey examining the perceived experiences of event participants. Findings illustrate the interrelationships of new small-scale events that can amplify their synergistic value by enabling the achievement of multiple purposes. Implications are drawn concerning the synergistic value of small-scale sport events and the strategic processes for creating a range of sustainable event outcomes

Linking corporate social responsibility in sport with community development: an added source of community value

This paper investigates the attributes of Corporate Social Responsibility programs in sport and their potential for sustainable community development. The gap between sport-related CSR and community development needs be filled by shifting attention to the capacity-building of communities. While the neo-liberal foundations of CSR are recognized, it is essential to understand the ideological varieties driving CSR that can enable inclusiveness and collaboration in fostering community benefits of CSR programs. The paper contributes to the literature on CSR in sport advancing the discourse, and sets the stage for a community-based framework for research: (1) related to sport as a tool for social change; (2) exploring the relationship of organizational motives, stakeholder engagement and CSR program design/implementation; and (3) evaluating the perceived benefits of CSR programs, and the extent to which these can help achieve sustainable community development

“Out of the Black, Into the Big Blue” on a Single Breath: Sport Event Value Co-Creation as Symbolic World-Making

Building upon the perspectives of sport value co-creation and symbolic action, this study employs a hermeneutic analysis of the socio-cultural dynamics shaping value in events. It examines the symbolic co-construction of a participatory small-scale event and the attached meanings that instantiate perceptions of value. The authors investigate a free-diving event held on the Greek island of Amorgos commemorating the 1988 film “Big Blue.” Fieldwork was conducted during the event, including focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and observation. Findings demonstrate the event’s dramaturgic hypostasis acting both as symbolic social space and multi-stakeholder value co-creation platform. Three overarching themes epitomize the actors’ experience: connecting, communing, and belonging. This reveals a dramaturgical world-making stage in which co-creative instantiators embody meanings that coordinate interaction, communicate information, integrate resources, and evaluate value. This study calls for comprehensive dramatological inquiries embracing the collective embodiment of events as social dramas that enable collaboration through the instantiation of shared meanings.acceptedVersio

Episodic Retail Settings: A Sustainable and Adaptive Strategy for City Centre Stores

The fact that an already damaged retail industry is being challenged by a pandemic makes the industry’s survival a matter of urban resilience. Sustainable and adaptive strategies are needed to reverse the negative development of the retail sector, and in this conceptual paper, a new perspective is suggested based on episodic retail settings. Such a perspective can increase a physical store’s attraction and may serve as a flexible operation strategy for urban retailers and give added value to urban consumers as they shape an ongoing dramatological discourse and facilitate social interaction in a way that traditional fixed-store formats are unable to compete with. By applying the scientific circle of enquiry (SCE), the authors develop an interdisciplinary perspective cutting across the sustainability, service science, and urban studies fields. On this ground, they present a set of conceptual premises and a tripartite conceptual framework delineating how to effectively design episodic retail settings that are adaptive and sustainable. The paper concludes with suggestions for research questions to further advance this field of study.publishedVersio

Popular Culture Tourism: Conceptual Foundations and State of Play

Popular culture tourism encompasses a range of expressive practices that attract fans traveling to destinations associated with their fandom pursuit. However, scholarship on this multifaceted phenomenon is today over-fragmented and obscured by separate disciplinary agendas and priorities. We argue that the scope and breadth of popular culture tourism calls for its interdisciplinary treatment as a distinct field. Through a scoping literature review, this paper identifies the foundational elements of its conceptual and ontological roots, extracting key insights and discursive themes that can help establish a comprehensive perspective on the study and management of popular culture tourism. Our inquiry builds common ground that can shed light on the complexity of popular culture expressions and enable their strategic role as a destination placemaking tool. Thematic areas of convergence resulting in the emergent configuration of the field are delineated, and primary research questions for the comprehensive study of popular culture tourism are outlined.publishedVersio