Introduction
In one calendar year, we have thousands of events taking place all over the world. These events may include national celebrations, educational (graduations, meeting and conferences), Promotions, including product launches, expos, political rallies and fashion shows, and also commemorations, such as memorials and civic events.
These are some of the events that may take place in many places globally. The context of this case is however, large events and especially of international reach such as the World Cup, the recent Olympic Games, The Super Bowl of the US, the NBA finals in the United States, and the 24 hours of Lemans in France. Other events of international magnitude would include the G8 Summit of the world’s leading nations, the UN conventions held in many parts of the world etc (Kasimati, 2003).
The holding or happening of these events have both negative and positive impacts on the host country, its environment, social and cultural wellbeing of its people among other effects. This paper seeks to establish the positive and negative effects of events. An attempt will also be made to try and seek a convergence on whether there is a fair distribution of these effects and what the event managers would do in order to ensure sustainability of the events in the long run, with a particular bias to the aspect of Triple Bottom Line approach to sustainability and its implications for future event managers.
When an event takes place in an area, there is inevitable impact on a number of issues. Whether the outcome becomes positive or negative will therefore depend on the nature of the event, venue, attendants, and management of the event among many other factors. The impacts may be apparent or even not apparent before, during or even after the event so the management of the event may not be in control of some of the impacts. The impacts are also felt by the community, the participants, the local businesses, and even the environment. An event affects the following:
Physical Infrastructure:
This is often thought to be the very important benefit of major events. Naturally, due to the importance attached to events, the physical infrastructure is always developed to be able to accommodate any dignitaries who may be involved. This encompasses transportation infrastructure, housing development and the renewal of urban areas, it may also include the construction of new buildings, improvement of landscape, construction of stadiums as was the case in South Africa during the recent world cup, and also the Olympics games that were held in London recently.
Historically, major events have also been criticized for leading to untold suffering for the residents of the host country. Statistics show that there was close to 720,000 room renters who were forcibly removed in anticipation of the 1988 Olympic games, and there were also thousands of the low income earners who were forced out of Barcelona in the wake of the 1996 Olympics (Gursoy, et al 2002). In other cases, locals are always against the increase in infrastructure in wait for events as a result of perceived increases in local taxes, disputes over the land acquisition, inflation of land prices and the usual restriction of the use of the new infrastructure (Olds,1998).
Environmental impacts
Environmental issue has been one of the most controversial issues in the recent past, and especially with relation to the major global events. This is because, these mega events have been famed for being responsible for cases of environmental degradation, sometimes leading to cancellation of major events since such events are considered to be detrimental to the environment.
A good example is the Sydney Olympic Games that had to brand themselves as the Green Olympics as a result of their efforts to conserve the environment. The Beijing Olympics games have however been criticized for manipulating the weather using silver iodide rockets.
The love parade was stopped in Berlin after several years of negotiations about their environmental destruction that was caused to the Tiergarten and also the question of waste management.
Economic impacts- the economic impacts of major events is two tier and will depend on the nature of event in question. The hosting of a world cup or Olympic Games for instance requires a country to spend billions of dollars of tax payer’s money, funds that are not guaranteed with the happening of the event. In most cases however, there is a very significant benefits that accrue to the host country. The hosting of such major events at the macroeconomic level means that the country’s currency will appreciate as a result of the incessant demand of the national currency with the influx of foreigners in the country (Soutar & McLeod,1993).
The economy at the micro level is set to benefit from a number of issues such as stadia charges, tourism, media and advertisement, as well as general expenditures in telecommunication. Businesses are also set to benefit from the flow of customers as the country hosts thousands of people who are likely to have a very high purchasing power (Higham,1999).
Tourism destination impacts. On one hand, the tourism of a particular area would increase as a result of the happening of an event, but on the other hand, tourists may prefer to go to other areas that would be considered as less crowded. Tourism this would mean that the revenues from tourism that would be expected may not be realized (Boo & Busser, 2006).
Image enhancement or disenhancement
Naturally, large events always lead to the global visibility of a place. We would not know most of the cities that we know of today, were it not for very major events that have taken place in these areas. This is because events have enhanced the image of these areas.
The image can also be given very bad picture as was reported recently about the Beijing and the Delhi common wealth games. According to Gilpatric, The Independent pointed out that the Delhi Commonwealth Games "have seen the deaths of numerous construction workers, a massive uprooting of the capital's poor and, following allegations of corruption, the Indian Prime Minister stepping in to appoint officials to supervise the project". It said that though $6 billion was being spent, delegates have condemned the athletes' village as "filthy, unhygienic and unfit for human habitation".
Safety fears intensified when a section of the ceiling on a weightlifting arena fell to the ground. On Tuesday, a pedestrian footbridge collapsed, injuring 27 workers.
The use of child labor has been a steady concern throughout the project. Child laborers were photographed putting up seats in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main Games venue. Many work alongside their laborers parents who are paid as little as 3 pounds per day. The photographer who captured children at work had his accreditation rescinded and a camera wiped by officials." The Independent article ended by saying: "The most galling thing for the Indians is the contrast this provides with China, which used the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a giant coming-out party, proving that it could beat the West at its own sports(Gilpatric,2010). The tragedy for India is that the world will conclude that this is another area where India cannot match its Asian rival."
Social and cultural impacts
The social and cultural norms of the host country can either be fostered or negatively affected depending on the events management. The event could an avenue for building community pride. The community would be proud to be recognized as the host of a very successful event and this may have the aesthetic value of bringing the people of a country together, so as to ensure the success of an event (Dogan,1989)..
On the other hand, as a result of territorial disputes, a major event could be a recipe for disaster. In undeveloped nations for instance, the venue could be a bone of contention as there is always fighting to determine who owns what, or what community or tribe should benefit from an event
As society seeks to showcase its culture and tradition, certain aspects of its traditions that are probably long forgotten will always be brought up. This serves to remind the younger generation of their traditions in society for posterity. At the same time, major events have been known to work towards the erosion of the local culture. This is because, such events usually bring with them people from all backgrounds and with different cultures which tends to compromise the host countries culture. Events have also been known to lead to crowding of shopping malls, streets, and also the growth of traffic jam in the major cities, and also parking space becomes quite scarce (Fredline, et al 2003)..
We have noted that besides the myriad positive impacts of events, there are a number of negative impacts that bedevil the business of events. These negative impacts have far reaching effects in the sustainability of global events in the wake of environmental conservation, informed citizenry and also global outcry over environmental degradation (Gilpatric,2010).
It is with this understanding that event managers have been forced to adopt what is now commonly called the triple bottom line. Coined by John Elkington in 1994, and further elaborated in his book Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, this term means that businesses have now become more sustainable, meaning that their bottom line is no longer the profit motivation but has been expanded to include
People, or human capital- this actually means that event managers have to ensure that they conduct their business in a ethical, fair and beneficial way to everyone. This means that the event managers will be required to have fair practices towards their employees, the society and the country of incorporation and event hosting counties.
This has the effect that the even managers will have to ensure the safety of everyone involved, to fairly treat staff and also ensure that any transaction that involves a citizen is ethical (Keogh,1990). For instance in building a stadia, the event managers be they a government, must ensure that in case anyone is displaces, then they must adequately be compensated for any loss that they may incur. Any unnecessary disturbance of the residents or any inconveniences that are not absolutely necessary must be avoided at all costs.
Planet- one of the global millennium goals is to protect the environment. This also encompasses ensuring that event managers not only protect the environment in the course of their business but also ensure sustainable environmentally sound business operations. This essentially means that event managers will be required to operate in an environmentally responsive way, taking calculated steps to ensure that their own environmental footprint is reduced and also that less waste is produced and also lesser energy is used in their operations.
Profit- the most obvious bottom-line here is the profit, which is the original goal of any business, and by extension, an event. Here the profit should be made in an environmentally sustainable manner and should be enjoyed by not only the event managers but also everyone who is involved in the entire process (Ashkin & Schultz, 2009)
Conclusion
Events all over the world have attracted a lot of attention, not because of the actual activities that take place in such events, but also because of the impacts that such events have on the host country and the participants.
While there are many beneficial impacts of events, it’s also notable that there are a number of negative attributes that events have on the community (Ryan,1993).. In order to sustain events in the long run, event managers have been advised to be keener in the organization of their events so that the negative impacts are reduced and possibly eliminated all together.
In order to do this, event managers have been advised to move from the traditional profit motive of their business to the triple bottom line philosophy that if and when followed, would result to a utilitarian position where events are celebrated for the good of all.
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