The Challenge and Opportunities for an Event Organiser during an Economic Recession

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The economic recession which began in late 2007 has, and will continue to have, repercussions for the events industry. Unemployment and inflation coupled with shrinking public and private sector budgets have made the operating environment difficult. On a more positive note however, Rae (2009) and Anderson et al. (2010) argue that a downturn in the economy can stimulate creativity and innovation. This paper lends some support to this argument as it examines how the recession has forced the organising committee of one of Europe’s most prestigious international youth football (soccer) tournaments to ‘think beyond the football’ and start to look at innovative ways to off-set the cuts in its funding. Based on data gathered from various stakeholders via interviews and focus groups the paper discusses how the tournament can generate extra revenue from gate receipts, corporate hospitality, merchandising, programming, sponsorship and marketing. Event organisers can learn two important lessons from this study: - Firstly the current economic climate is challenging but they should try and think ‘outside the box’ as challenges can present opportunities and secondly consult and collaborate with event stakeholders as their insight and ideas may prove invaluable in these challenging times.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)122-136
JournalInternational Journal of Event and Festival Management
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 2 Sept 2012

Bibliographical note

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Further Reading
1.
Getz, D. (2003), “Sport event tourism: planning, development, and marketing”, in Hudson, S. (Ed.), Sport and Adventure Tourism, Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY.
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2.
Lickorish, L. and Jenkins, C. (1999), An Introduction to Tourism, Butterworth‐Heinemann, Oxford.
OpenURL UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER

3.
Whitford, M. (2009), “A framework for the development of event public policy: facilitating regional development”, Tourism Management, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 674‐82.
[CrossRef], [ISI]OpenURL UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER [Infotrieve]

Keywords

  • Recession: Challenges: Innovation: Creativity: Stakeholders: Consultation

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