The Impact of Mega Sporting Events on Host Country’s Destination Images: The Cases of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and 2015 Beijing IAAF World Championships

Abstract

From a tourism perspective, this study examined the change in host countries’ destination images before and after mega sporting events. The study developed and tested a conceptual model delineating the relationship among sport event involvement, designation images, attitude towards the host country, and visit intention. This study further examined if the model has the same pattern across different sporting events. For the purpose of this study, the 2015 International Association of Athletics Federations Championships and the 2014 Winter Olympic Games were selected. Using a mall and street intercept sampling method, a total of 572 participants were recruited in the United States. The results of a series of structural equation modeling tests showed positive change in Safety and Urban images before and after both events. This study showed that change in destination images varies across sporting events. These findings suggest the need for more holistic and integrated event marketing strategies to attract more tourists from foreign countries.

Signaling soft power through medal success: China as an example

“…In addition, research indicates that sport or sport event involvement would have a significant effect on image impact of event host destination, and high levels of sport involvement would lead to high valency of destination image enhancement (Kim et al 2014). Kim et al (2019) studied the role of sport involvement as a antecedent factor affecting event destination image change, and confirmed it would have a positive and significant influence on the post-event image dimensions of Russia for hosting the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, and urban, safety. It is argued that the impact of sport involvement on host city or country image change may be due to receiving more media exposure to the games grounded on higher level of interest, and having stronger emotional investment to the event leading to stronger image transfer effect (Kim et al 2014;Kim et al 2019).…”

“…Kim et al (2019) studied the role of sport involvement as a antecedent factor affecting event destination image change, and confirmed it would have a positive and significant influence on the post-event image dimensions of Russia for hosting the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, and urban, safety. It is argued that the impact of sport involvement on host city or country image change may be due to receiving more media exposure to the games grounded on higher level of interest, and having stronger emotional investment to the event leading to stronger image transfer effect (Kim et al 2014;Kim et al 2019). In a similar vein, if Olympic medal success is considered as a signal sent by a country, it would be reasonable to expect the level of interest in Olympics should play a positive role in shaping the image of the country, and this leads to the third hypothesis: H3: Olympic involvement will positively influence the soft power impact of a country's Olympic achievement…”

“…The items for each dimension were mainly adopted and modified from existing literature. More specifically, items for culture attractiveness mainly came from Kim et al (2019), and the other three sub-scales were borrowed and modified from Heslop, Nadeau, and O'Reilly (2010) and Armenakyan (2012). To examine the impact of elite sport success of country on its soft power, the awareness of that success in the first place is a prerequisite.…”

“…In order to measure involvement in the Olympic Games, three items were adopted and modified from Kim et al (2019), using 5-point semantic differential scale. The measurement for the goodwill was generated by drawing on Eddy and Cork (2019) and Dees, Bennett, and Villegas (2008) with four five-point Likert scale items, anchored from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).…”

Perceived Benefits of Trademark Infringement Law to Thai Sports Industry

“…Nowadays we rarely see a sport event without sponsorship. In most local or international sports events, sponsors have an important role and position (8), and this is also the benefit for the company in the issue of marketing strategy for attracting the attendants from many countries (9). The exchange of benefits may also lead to an exchange of brand image.…”