Current Events in

Hospitality
Lecturer – Jade Bissessur
 Agenda
Stakeholders
The impact of events on the host community
 1. The host organisation
• These are organizations whose responsibilities include staging or hosting
events.
• Host organizations produce or organise events for various reasons.
• While most of the festivals are organized by governmental and nonprofit,
community-based organizations, other increasing forms of events are being
organized by for-profit organizations, economic development and tourism
agencies, and resort and facility managers.
• Governmental agencies and voluntary groups mainly organise events such as
sport and general leisure events that are service-based and whose goals are
cultural, economical and environmental. These events are usually a
community developmental tool, free or inexpensive but aimed at the widest
possible audience and sometimes at specific market segments.
• These sectors often try to interact with the public event sector that provides
avenues for cooperate sponsorships and hosting.
• There are also entrepreneurs involved in the corporate sector whose
interest is the staging or selling of events. The events can cover a
wide variety of events, such as, sports, concert, conferences, and
exhibitions etc. for the public, and in most cases the media partner co-
operates with these entrepreneurs or groups in organising these
events. (Allen et al. 2011, 127.)
 2. The host community
• Host communities or tourism destinations tend to brand themselves by
providing some form of tourism core product for which they will be known.
And one way of doing this, is to have some particular form of event which
has been described as temporary attractions.
Factors affecting hosting organisations and
communities
• There are various trends and forces going in the wider community and
these trends nowadays determine the operating environment for their
events.
• There are specific event styles and fashion that pertain to specific
communities and only these are receptive to them.
• Therefore, for event managers and planners to be able to host and
carry out successful events, they must first and foremost get a good
understanding and also interpret these basic concepts and forces
behind the events.
 a. Climate Change
• Climate change is one major factor that is currently affecting the
hosting of events and for this reason, there has been an increasing
worldwide interest and commitment to sustainability and the
protection of the environment.
 b. Globalization

• Another factor is globalization, which is due to the fact that global

networks now make it possible for the world to be seen as a global
village.
• This factor has now made it difficult for local cultures to maintain their
uniqueness and identity. For instance, local festivals and celebrations
now see the international products and streamlined television
production as big competitors because of the raised expectations
accustomed to them by the audience.
 c. Technology
• It has impacted much on how the audience receives events and also
on how the events are created and delivered.
• In the process of planning events these days, event software
programs and templates play a major role in reducing the planning
time and also enables the event managers to work on several events
at the same time.
• Having recognized these factors and forces affecting the organization
or the hosting of an event in any host community, the event manager
must then pay attention to local benefits, and cost, the programming
should be broad and the event should give back something tangible
to the community (Getz 1997, 47.)
 3.Sponsors
• Sponsors in the event industry are individuals or companies who provide
support either in terms of money, services or other means, to events and event
organisations in return for specified benefits.
• They could also be thought of as individuals or agencies providing monetary
grants or subsidies to events unless there are no obligations tied to the
assistance.
• In most cases, sponsorships are often short-lived but they create a long term
partnership which is a major desire of both the sponsor and the organiser.
Partnerships are said to be created when both parties work to achieve benefits
that cannot be achieved separately.
• There has been an increase in the interest and perception of sponsors these
days towards events. Before now, many business individuals or large
companies have seen sponsoring an event as a public relations tool for
generating community goodwill, but these days it is regarded as a promotional
tool in the marketing mix, a way of increasing brand awareness and also
driving sales.
 3.Sponsors
• Another consideration is that it helps to build good partnership relationship
through hosting, and it allows corporations to achieve corporate objectives and
sales goals.
 4.Media
• The recent development of the media sector as a result of improved delivery
systems which entails cable satellite television and the Internet, have created
an urge for the consumption of media products as never before.
• The global networking of media organizations and the instant electronic
transmission of media images and data have made the global village concept a
reality. For instance, the Beijing Olympics games attracted the largest global
television audience ever which amounted to 70 percent of the world’s
population, i.e. 4.7 billion viewers.
• The social media has also contributed to the developments of events as many
events now add these social media to their websites, enabling feedbacks,
comments and opinions, exchanging views and even participating in the
design and programming of events.
• Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr and LinkedIn make
events more personalized in their communication, and more interactive. (Allen
et al. 2011, 133.)
 5.Co-workers
• This is another key stakeholder in the event industry sector which involves, key
managers, marketers, consultants, talent and publicist, right through to the
stage managers, crew, gatekeepers and even cleaners.
• Anyone that is on one way or the other participating in the team that is formed
or assembled to carry out an event is called co-workers.
• And for any event to be implemented successfully, they must all work as a
team and be very effective in dispersing the vision and philosophy of the event.
Regardless of the size of the team, the coworkers or event team acts as the
face of the event and each one of them is responsible for the event’s success
or failure.
• There have been mixed experiences by people while attending an event, some
being successful and others marred with some shortcomings. There could be
several ways of correcting such bad instances but good teamwork and
management are always in the forefront in addressing them
 6.Participants and Spectators
• Finally, these stakeholders are the ones for which the event organized is
intended and they are the ultimate in making the event a success or a failure.
In other to avoid a flop, the event manager must carry out feasibility studies on
what the audience’s physical needs are, as well as their needs for comfort,
safety and security.
• The event should also be organized in such a way that it will be special, i.e.
being able to connect to the emotions of the participants. In other words, the
event should give the participants a life-time experience where it will be
memorable in their minds.
• Hammerling (1997) illustrates the criteria by which spectators assess an event
thus: Their main focus is on the content, location, substance and operation of
the event itself. He further went on to say that for them, the ease with which
they can see the event activities, the program content, their access to food and
drinks, amenities, access and egress etc., are the keys to their enjoyment.
 Impacts of events
• An extremely significant issue should be considered when planning an
event – all events have positive or negative influence on different spheres,
and this has to be managed by an organizer.
• There are always lots of impacts of events on a host community and these
impacts are usually both positive and negative.
• However, it is the responsibility of the event’s organizers or managers to
try to keep the positive impact higher than the negative by identifying and
predicting beforehand these impacts, and then trying to manage them so
as to arrive at the best results for all the parties involved which in turn gives
overall positive impacts.
• One way of achieving this goal, is to develop and maximize all the
foreseeable positive impacts, and counter potential negative impacts.
 Social and cultural impacts
• Society and culture are two concepts that can hardly be separated. While a
society is a community or a broad grouping of people who have common
traditions, institutions, activities and interest, culture represents the practices of a
society; its customary beliefs, social roles and material objects that are
transferred or passed down from generation to generation

• In this context therefore, the potential effects or impacts of events or tourism as a

whole on the culture of a society are major concerns for the host community,
event managers/ organizers and other stakeholders in the event/ tourism
industry.
 Social and cultural impacts
• This is because events often attract visitors or ‘outsiders’ into a host community
or ‘society’ and then, there is a possibility that the society can be influenced by
changing its culture (Cook et al. 2010, 303.)

• At some point, the host community’s attitude is one barometer to measure its
ability to receive tourists, and the impact is a function of the interaction between
them and it is dependent on some factors.

• Some of these factors could be the nature and the extent of social and cultural
differences between the tourists and the host community, the ratio of
tourists/visitors to the host community residents etc.
 Social and cultural impacts
• Every event hosted in a community usually has direct social and cultural impacts
on the participants, and in some cases, the wider host communities too. These
impacts can be simple experiences in form of shared entertainment such as
sports events or concerts.

• Events have the ability to intensify community pride, introduce new and
challenging ideas and also help to revitalize the traditions of the host community.

• Major events can sometimes create unintended consequences which can hijack
the agenda and determine the way the public perceives the event if not managed
properly. Such consequences can be in form of substance abuse, bad behavior
by crowds and the increase in criminal activities.

• Events can also impact on the social life and structures of communities in various
ways. An example of which can be car traffic which may impede the access to
resident’s homes, loss of amenities, cost inflation of goods and services, which
can raise housing markets thereby impacting on the low-income groups.
 Political impacts
• In managing any event, government policies have an important role to play
in order to actualize the goal of the event.

• Policies have to be taken into account before planning and hosting events
as different events have different policies governing them.
• For instance, there are regulations involved when planning an event where
there has to be public disturbance, environmental pollution, erection and
staging etc.

• Politicians in recent times have realized the ability of events to raise their
profile also of their cities and states as events normally gain media coverage
and at the same time attract visitors and increase economic benefits and job
opportunities.
• Therefore, they have become major key players in bidding for, hosting and
staging major events.
 Political impacts
• Events can be hosted for many political reasons, and their management and
marketing are usually influenced by politics.
• In mega-events, the dominant power in society seeks to showcase and
reinforce its values, or to gain support.
• Event being an image-making tool, gives political propaganda the
opportunity for their unpleasantly loud and noisy messages.
 Environmental impacts
• One way of showcasing the unique characteristics of a host community is by
hosting events during which the real properties of the destination is pointed
out.
• A lot of environmental impact assessment should be carried out and
considered before hosting an event.
• Some of the major things to keep in mind when hosting a rather large event
is the venue, because the impacts will be more if the event is not held in a
suitable purpose built venue
• In most cases, there are always more negative environmental impacts on a
host community than positive, especially when there has not been enough
study, assessment and measures put in place on how to curtail these
impacts.
• Impacts like crowd movement and control, noise pollution, access and
parking and most rampantly, waste disposal.
 Environmental impacts
• In order for any destination or host community to be able to provide services
to visitors, they first have to develop the necessary infrastructures to support
these services.
• After these infrastructures have been put in place, another detrimental
impact that can occur to the environment is the substantial increase in the
number of people using them.
• They could be simple impacts, like increase in traffic, crowded parks but
might be severe enough to cause harm to a fragile environment
 Tourism and Economy
• The main driving force for event tourism and for tourism development as a
whole is the economic benefits derived from it.
• Events can impact on a host community through various means, examples of
which could be in form of foreign exchange earnings, income and employment
generation.
• This is somehow the most important impacts event organizers and host
communities most look at from the positive side.
• Whether or not the budget will be enough to host the event and at the end of
the day if the event will result in a surplus or profit or not is always the greatest
concern for event organizers and host communities.
• Tourism revenue to host communities normally accounts for a large portion of
the total revenue i.e. spending at the event either on travel, accommodation,
goods and services by tourists, especially external visitors.
 Tourism and Economy
• Some other great impacts an event can cause on a host community are the
ability for it to create more business opportunities.
• Events are avenues for host communities to showcase their expertise, hosting
potential investors and promoting new business opportunities.
• Employment creation is another way an event can impact on the host
community as expenditures during events by visitors can provide more jobs for
the host community.
• Although most people argue that these jobs provided as a result of visitors are
short term jobs and that most employers tend to use their existing staffs more
rather than employing new staff members, there is a level of demand that it will
be impossible to use existing staff alone especially when it is a hallmark, major
or mega event.