An Examination of the Relationship Between Event Organisers and Public Sector Event Organisations.

Smith (2012) discusses how events have become a platform to promote and sell the host destination to potential visitors and throughout the world there are examples of local, regional and national tourism strategies which include, and in some cases evolve around events. In fact, in many countries event organisers who apply for public sector funding must illustrate how their event can generate tourism revenue. In addition, for those events that do receive public monies their ‘tourism impact’ must be analysed in the event evaluation. Thus, in the twenty first century event organisers must not only be proficient in the area of event management they must also be experts in tourism. This raises two key questions, and these two questions formed the basis of this study:1. What is the relationship between local event organisers and a national tourism agency?2. What more can a national tourism agency do to assist event organisers promote tourism through their event?The study focused on Northern Ireland and using the critical case purposive sampling technique thirty-two event organisers were interviewed along with a manager from the events unit within the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (the national tourism organisation). The majority of the event organisers recognised the mutual benefits that can be gained from promoting tourism through their event and accepted that tourism should be included in the criteria when applying for funding. However, there was also a general consensus amongst the event organisers, some of which were voluntary or part-time, that they did not have sufficient time, resources or expertise to dedicate to tourism. They identified nine key areas where the Northern Ireland Tourist Board need to be more proactive: (1) strategic direction and leadership; (2) lobby central government for increased funding; (3) promote smaller events; (4) disseminate general tourist information to event organisers; (5) provide training / tourism related workshops; (6) organise /facilitate networking sessions with key stakeholders such as the media and sponsors; (7) help negotiate deals with travel operators; (8) coordinate the national events calendar; (9) act as a conduit between event organisers and central and local government.This study was confined to Northern Ireland but as event tourism continues to move up the political agenda event organisers in other countries will face similar challenges and have similar demands placed on them. Thus, it is not enough for national, regional and local governments and their respective agencies to assume, and in some cases demand that event organisers promote tourism via their event – event organisers need help and as depicted in figure 1 collaboration is crucial if event tourism is to realise its potential.