Special Event Tourism

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In recent times, there have been a budding number of countries advocating a move away from mass tourism to forms of tourism that will be sustainable and offer a greater economic benefit in the future. Often these alternative forms of tourism have been categorized as ‘special interest tourism’, the important characteristics of which have been claimed to be low volume and high value (Hall, 1995). The most distinctive and beneficial sector of special interest tourism is the special event summer Olympics. The Summer Olympics Games are an international multi-sport event usually Quadrennial, organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Travel relating to sporting activity has clearly taken place for thousands of years. Authors across the last thirty-five years have traced the earliest documented example of this type of tourism to the ancient Olympic games dating from 776 BC (Baker, 1982; Davies, 1997; Finley and Pleket, 1976; Standeven and De Knop. 1999; Van Dalen and Bennett, 1971; Weed and Bull, 2004). However, despite this long history it was not till recently that countries were able to perceive the immense potential of travel aroused by special events. In the context of travel and tourism, special events are defined as infrequently occurring events outside normal activities and are largely driven by profit motives (Getz, 2008). (Standeven and De Knop, 1999) have conceptualized sport tourism as forms of active and passive involvement in sporting activity, participated in casually or in an organized way for noncommercial or business/commercial reasons, that necessitate travel away from home and work locality. The 21st century has witnessed an explosion of interest in the economic impacts that occur from hosting the Games. The first documented city to achieve a successful income from hosting the Games was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which made a

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