Reimaging the City

Abstract

A growing number of post-industrial cities are utilizing sport initiatives to present an attractive image to potential tourists. Despite insufficient evidence of, and explanations for, image effects, it is widely assumed that these initiatives have the capacity to enhance city images. The aim of this paper is to explore the value of sport as a reimaging theme for the contemporary city destination. This assessment is based primarily on evidence regarding the effects of sport reimaging initiatives adopted by three UK cities -Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield. The findings suggest that, although sport reimaging does exhibit some advantageous qualities, there are also significant problems associated with this mode of place marketing.

Legacy of the Beijing Olympic Games: a non-host city perspective

“…Kaplanidou & Vogt, 2007;Kaplanidou, 2009;Smith, 2005;Smith, 2006). Indeed Smith (2005Smith ( , 2006 suggested that in general sport events appear to have encouraged positive connotations amongst potential tourists, including modernity, progress and vitality. The image of Beijing and China, however, is not a perceived legacy of hosting the Games by Shanghai residents.…”

“…Though it has long been pointed out that events can positively and negatively affect the image of the host city (Chalip et al, 2003), the majority of existing literature focuses on the positive impact of sports events on tourism (e.g. Kaplanidou & Vogt, 2007;Kaplanidou, 2009;Smith, 2005;Smith, 2006). Indeed Smith (2005Smith ( , 2006 suggested that in general sport events appear to have encouraged positive connotations amongst potential tourists, including modernity, progress and vitality.…”

“…However, in stark contrast to the economic impacts, social and cultural impacts are often less tangible though equally well documented (see Chalip, 2004;Chalip & Costa, 2005;Chalip, Green, & Hill, 2003;Hall, 1992;Smith, 2005;Xing & Chalip, 2006) with one or two arguing that any social benefit may be greater in the long term when considered against the short-term economic gains a city can generate (Liu & Gratton, 2010). Indeed, according to Kim and Walker (2012), the importance of the psychological benefits has been recognised in the fields of tourism and event management since Ritchie (1984) posited the issue.…”

Sports as a component of nation branding initiatives: The case of Latvia

“…Smith (2005) studied the cases of Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield and their derived benefits from sports; Brown, Chalip, Jago and Mules (2002) discussed the Sydney Olympics and its implications for the Australian brand; and Wang (2010) studied how Beijing transformed from Forbidden City to an Olympic city. Rein and Shields (2007) defined event, team and place platforms for place branding initiatives.…”

Identity and authenticity in destination image construction

“…Papson (1981) highlights the two-way mutual influence between projected and perceived images. Many authors, such as Mackay and Fesenmaier (1997) and Smith (2005), explain that tourist image is the amalgam of the projected and perceived images of a destination. The dialectic relationship between both sides lies in this two-way flow of image construction, as social agents construct and project certain meanings onto the individuals with whom they interact, and they, in turn, interpret the meanings produced by their interlocutors (Santos & Buzinde, 2007) and reproduce them, by their actions and transmission to others, thus closing the hermeneutic circle of image (Caton & Almeida, 2008).…”