Abstract

Hosts of sport events (other than small and strictly local events) are in the tourism business whether they know it or not. In fact, access to local sport facilities, provision of public services, and direct public subsidies to events are nearly always legitimised on the grounds that events render positive economic benefits by attracting tourists (i.e., non-locals) whose spending enhances the local economy (Mondello and Rishe 2004; Taks et al. 2013). Consequently, the task for destination marketers has been to create a portfolio of events that includes sport events, as well as arts and cultural events (Ziakas 2014). The portfolio of events is expected to serve two complementary objectives: (1) to attract visitors at the time of each event in order to fill hotel and motel space that would otherwise be empty, as well as to foster visitor spending at the destination; and (2) to incorporate events into the destination marketing mix in a manner that enhances the destination’s attractiveness to tourists who will consequently visit even when an event is not taking place, particularly by using the event purposefully in overall destination branding.