EVENT MANAGEMENT: SOUTH AFRICA 2010 WORLD CUP 1
THE EFFECTIVENESS OR CHALLENGES FACED BY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN HOSTING MEGA EVENTS, A CASE STUDY OF SOUTH AFRICA FIFA WORLD CUP 2010
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1 ABSTRACT
Most researchers are skeptical about the benefits of hosting mega events such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup since such activities have considerable costs, and seem to yield few tangible benefits. These doubts are rarely shared by policymakers and the population, who are typically quite enthusiastic about hosting such spectacular events in their countries. This research will, however, reconcile these positions by examining how hosting mega events can boost the tourism industry, and also improve the image of hosting nation. The first part reviews different literatures and looks at ideological theories of collaboration and local networks, with their importance in tourism for mega events. With an entire focus on South African tourism, subsequent parts analyze the impact of this event on South African economy, efficiency in the Event Management System and Challenges faced in the process. The case study of South African tourism helps capitalize the number of who came for the 2010 world cup and beyond. The proposed research will be guided by the following research questions. What roles do event managers have in planning and organizing mega events? Is the success or failure of such events solely dependent on what event organizers put in place, or do stake holders and participants have roles to play. How does this affect the tourism sector? A case study of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, this hypothesis suggests event management affects host countries in mega events.
Table of Contents
1 ABSTRACT 2
2 INTRODUCTION 4
2.1 Theoretical Framework 5
2.2 Defining a Mega Event 6
3 Sports Tourism Perspective 8
4 Collaboration and Network Theory 9
5 Literature Review 10
6 Methodology 13
6.1 Data Collection Methods 13
6.2 Participant Observation 13
6.3 Interviews 13
6.4 Model Used 14
6.5 Consideration of the Research’s Ethics 15
6.6 Limitations of the Research 15
7 Research Findings and Outcomes 15
7.1 The Efficiency of FIFA’s Events Management System (EMS) 16
7.2 Event Management and South African Tourism 17
7.3 Impacts on the South African Economy 18
7.4 Collaboration and networking during the event 19
7.5 Challenges Faced 20
8 Conclusion 21
9 References 23
2 INTRODUCTION
Mega events are scheduled at least once every year somewhere in the world, but they are always rare occurrences for the host countries and cities (Baade & Matheson, 2004). However, the benefits of these events seem lucrative, and host cities plus the common people look forward to these events with passion. The FIFA World Cup is one such an event, and in 2004, the organizing body chose the Republic of South Africa to be the host of this spectacular event later in July 2010.The very fact that South Africa bid to host the World Cup is an indication that the benefits, either tangible or intangible, would often outweigh the costs incurred. In this regard, therefore, the FIFA Event Management System is everything, which determines the success or failure of this event. South Africa also has a role to play, and this include integration of all elements necessary to ensure smooth flowing of events for the entire 30 days.One economic sector that stands to lose or gain significantly from the situation is the tourism industry. Moreover, the World Cup also affects the host country’s reputation, and for this reason, organization is the only sure way of controlling and managing events for the entire period.Specialists and other professionals undertook to predict the impacts of the 2010 World Cup before the event took place, what is referred to as ‘ex ante’. However, this prediction is difficult because the World Cup would stimulate other economic events, as well, and which may be challenging to predict in advance. There will be unplanned changes during and after this event, which involve policy changes and business cycles.Mega events are ideally part of the society today and this topic enables understanding of various ways to improve the tourism sector prior to, during, and after such events.
For many years, sports have been an integral element of the South African culture, and an essential part of the economy, as well (Baade & Matheson, 2004). It is imperative to note that FIFA reserves the hosting of the World Cup to developing countries, which has established infrastructure. South Africa qualifies as one of these countries based on FIFA standards. There is a desire to capitalize on football’s growing popularity in the world and promote the idea of football; hence FIFA chose to alienate European countries and Latin America for a while.For this reason, South Africa becomes the first country in Africa to host this mega event since it began in 1930. In addition, it is essentially significant to assess the impacts of such mega event on developing economy such as South Africa’s. It all depends on how organizers and all stakeholders manage the events during this competition.
2.1 Theoretical Framework
There are myriads of beliefs regarding an opportunity to host the World Cup in South Africa, and they are in relation to the tourism industry and the country’s reputation.These issues are meant to guide event organizers and help them come up with appropriate ways of having everything under control. Furthermore, there were a couple of reports from economic consultants, such as KPMG and Grant Thornton, which issued many confusing reports, prior to and during the 2010 World Cup. In these prior reports, there are two broad claims of benefits, which include; rise in the GDP of South Africa as a result of massive infusion of cash, and boost in tourism, more jobs and tax revenues for the state.There is a consideration of the effects of hosting the World Cup to the tourism industry, and it follows a general belief that tourists will come in large numbers from all corners of the world, especially participating countries (Eisinger, 2000). This bound to boost the tourism industry, development of infrastructure, creation of more jobs, and overall improvement of the economy. The country can, therefore, have good preparation to see success in hosting the event, plus incorporate all economic sectors to hold each other’s hands for survival (Baade & Matheson, 2002).
However, organizers of the event do not forget challenges and pitfalls in having the World Cup in South Africa. It turns out that there will be an increase in social evils, in the country, as a result of massive population. Most notable are crimes and prostitutions. These are challenges typical in every mega event (Eisinger, 2000), and South Africa would not be an exception. However, there is every effort aimed at alienating such occurrences as much as possible. Crime situations require an efficient internal control system to guarantee visitors security in all corners of the country. These are all expectations prior to hosting the World Cup, and South Africa prepared adequately for them. The main objective being to make visitors (tourists) feel at home and come more often. It is such strategies, which would influence the success of this event and boost tourism.
2.2 Defining a Mega Event
The idea here is to explain the question, “How are mega events distinct from other events?” In this case, the first step involves considering a mega event within the realms of other non-sporting events (Baade & Matheson, 2002). The definition of mega events takes into account two broad features; the event’s internal and external characteristics.Internal characteristics of a mega event includes its scale and duration, and this incorporates issues such as, number of individual sessions, number of spectators and participants, and level of complexity in the event’s organization (Black & Van der Westhuizen, 2004). On the other hand, external characteristics take into account the event’s tourism and media attractiveness as well as impacts on the host cities. There have been no significant concern in the internal characteristics of mega events, and most researchers concentrate on the external features (Eisinger, 2000).This follows the fact that internal characteristics are definite issues, which everyone can see and use to distinguish whether or not the event could be classified as a mega event.In general, mega events have an impact on the economy and local tourism within a given country.
Furthermore, the baseline of the bulk of a mega event analysis constitutes infrastructure preparation and expenditure on facilities, revenue from media exposure, tickets and visitor spending (Eisinger, 2000).However, further analysis looks at mega events as tools of expression of political ideologies and government policies. In this way, the host country’s government takes a center stage and the entire world watches how it carries out the operations. It is on this basis that people can later judge if the event was a failure or success.Furthermore, some specialists assess mega events in terms of the role they play in the process of capital accumulation through media audiences and corporate sponsorship (Roche, 2000). In this case, it turns out that mega events attract huge audiences in the media, and there is always a bid by many corporate bodies willing to sponsor such events. This is because the benefits outweigh costs involved. In addition, mega events also receive attention in respect to the level of urban processes involved, such as renewal of urban space and erection of landmark structures.For instance, in Barcelona’s 1992 Olympic Games, there was an extensive waterfront development to enhance sporting activities (Roche, 2000).This qualifies such an event as a mega event since it is accompanied by some form of structural development.
In addition, much of the definition and analysis of mega events focus on levels of media attractiveness. However, there is an argument that this criterion alone cannot determine the status of a mega event. For instance, Sheffield hosted the 1991 World Student Games, which had poor associated sponsorship and media coverage, resulting into serious debts for the event’s organizers (Black & Van der Westhuizen, 2004).However, it is imperative to note the significant economic impact this event had on Sheffield City, and it is the sole reason behind the ongoing project of regenerating the city.Although researches rarely overlook media coverage when it comes to mega events-analysis, most focus is on the consequences of such events on the host cities, countries and region. This means that the entire criteria for determining mega events depends on the economic impacts the event has on host cities.This means that mega events have high economic impacts on the host cities and country in terms of one or more of the following; visitors’ expenditure, tourists’ volume, publicity and better positive image, organizational and infrastructural development. For this reason, the impacts and degree of the event on host cities become another criterion of classifying the event as a mega one (Black & Van der Westhuizen, 2004).This, therefore, allows for a comprehensive definition of a mega event, and it goes; mega events are those commercial, sporting or cultural occurrences, which receive high media coverage, and which have significant impacts on the countries, cities and regions hosting them.
3 Sports Tourism Perspective
Sports tourism involves a situation in which people travel away from their usual environments to observe or participate in a sporting event. The event managers in the South Africa 2010 World Cup had this in mind, and noted that tourists will be a combination of both participants and spectators. This, therefore, requires adequate preparation and suitable facilities to accommodate everyone. Sport tourism is a fast growing sector in the tourism and travel industry, accounting for $600 billion every year. This shows the magnitude of such events and requires proper planning to undertake. In event management, there are considerations on the ability of a country to host as large a population as possible (Black & Van der Westhuizen, 2004).FIFA event organizers choose developing countries on the basis of their abilities to accommodate big populations. In addition, such countries should have already established infrastructure, which only require improvement.There are two broad classification of sport tourism; hard sports tourism and soft sports tourism (Sandretto, 2007). With hard sports tourism, consideration is on the number of people travelling to participate in the events. For this reason, the events are highest motivation attracting visitors, and FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games qualify as hard sports tourism. On the other hand, soft sport tourism is where tourists sign for leisure interests or participation in recreational sporting (Sandretto, 2007). These activities are not always the primary reasons why tourists visit, and they are meant for whiling away time.Other than the above, there is the idea of sports event tourism, and this involves visitors who come to a city to watch events. For instance, during the 2010 World Cup, the city of Johannesburg received an immense amount of tourists. Event management, therefore, considers the above three broad categories of tourists in planning for facilities and accommodation.
4 Collaboration and Network Theory
Events management in the tourism sector considers collaboration and networking a great deal (Seline, 1993).The issue takes different forms, and these include; private-public sector collaboration, policy making and tourism planning process, informal meetings between the industry and politicians, spreading of information through the media, or public private partnership (Seline, 1993). Organization and planning of events during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa considered the majority of the above classifications. It is imperative to note that mega events affect the entire country, and all stakeholders, which have quality contributions, should be incorporated. This is the entire issue in collaboration and networking. It involves having the public and private sector tourism bodies actively ensuring that the country faces no challenges in an effort to create a good picture during these events. The 2010 World Cup followed an unfortunate schedule in South Africa because it happened during a low season in tourism. However, the magnitude of this event means that no single sector of the economy can handle it all alone. This, therefore, required collaboration and an efficient network incorporating the industry, media, politicians and other relevant sectors of the economy.