#2 Promoting tourist destinations through events

Many tourist sites, during the tourist season, multiply events to get people talking about them. But what is the real impact of the events on the tourism economy? What do we mean by event?

In France, we find the first tourist events from the 19th century with the creation of the concept of universal exhibition including that of Paris in 1855 and its 5 million visitors. But as usual in Tourism, Great Britain, a pioneer in the field, was once again one step ahead in 1851 and its 6 million visitors. The event is then the trigger for tourist visits and generates flows of curious visitors.

But it was the automobile industry that was a true pioneer in the field, from the end of the 19th century quickly understanding that communicating through major events would be indirectly beneficial for sales. Michelin, a company founded in 1889 in Clermont-Ferrand, invested in cycling races and won Paris-Brest-Paris from its first edition in 1891. Later the company would enter into fierce competition with its competitor Dunlop to equip the various French tourist routes with road signage.

André Citroën, for his part, created the Croisière Noire in 1924, better known as the “Citroën Center Africa Expedition”, to promote his brand by connecting North Africa to West Africa and at the same time prove that the automobile was the best way to connect territories. He would later organize the Yellow Cruise in 1931, 13,000 kilometers between Beirut and Beijing, using the same format.

It is also imperative to cite in this emerging link between Tourism and events the renovation of the Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens by Pierre de Courbertin which then experienced a media and economic boom throughout the 20th century by becoming a crucible of innovation for sport and the media (the 1956 Olympics were the first to be broadcast internationally and the following Winter Games saw their audiovisual rights sold for the first time. CBS paid $394,000 for American rights) and the economy (the estimated budget for the 2012 London Olympics is £9 billion).

EVENTS OR IMPROVED ANIMATION?

First of all, we must differentiate the notion of animation event. In terms of definition, the first is a “significant current event”, and the second is a “set of means and methods implemented to actively involve the members of a community in the life of the group” according to the Larousse dictionary. But in all this, there are also criteria of temporality and attendance. The recurrence of an event is not necessarily the same as that of an animation. This first has a striking aspect in its definition, we speak of a historical event. To make its mark, it almost has to be unique or rare. Animation, for its part, relates more to periodicity, to regular meetings. The second important criterion is its attendance potential. Between 100 people coming to the events of a tourist destination and welcoming a stage finisher of the Tour de France, the preparation is not the same, nor are the regulatory constraints. We cannot therefore apprehend one and the other in the same way. The impact on the destination too, we can have a very dense entertainment program and very few imported or manufactured events. The opposite is also possible, the important thing will simply be to define the objectives of success, satisfy and occupy the populations on site or/and generate visitor flows.

To go further on a type of scale for classifying events, I advise you to read Nico Didry's book, Les Enjeux de l'objet sportive, L'Harmattan, 2008.

HOW TO MEASURE THE IMPACT OF AN EVENT ON THE TOURIST ECONOMY?

All you have to do is count the number of participants and add a blind estimate of the number of spectators and off you go.... How simple it would be to do it like that. Unfortunately, life is bad and measuring the impact is a little more complex.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, a growing number of event organizers and their partners (particularly institutional) have undertaken to evaluate the impact of their events on the local economy. Several reasons explain this desire: to reinforce (for the organizers) or justify (for the partners) support for the event, to have (for local decision-makers) the necessary information to be able to choose the operations with which to intervene and determine the level of this intervention...

But what is the impact?

An impact is a consequence, a positive or negative evolution, more or less marked, generated by a phenomenon, in this case the presence of an event in a territory. Calculating an impact therefore consists of measuring a differential, a gap between two situations: with and without the event. We will therefore remember four major impacts of our event:

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: Impact on ecosystems

ECONOMIC IMPACT: Impact on economic prosperity

SOCIAL IMPACT: Impact on local populations

IMPACT ON THE ACTIVITY: Impact on the development of the activity

The consequences of an event can then manifest themselves at multiple levels: on the satisfaction and well-being of populations (social impacts), on sites and landscapes, pollution, fauna and flora (environmental impacts), on the valorization and local development of sporting or cultural activities concerned by the event (cultural or sporting impacts)... We generally identify two types of economic impacts: short-term economic impacts and medium and long-term impacts; the “short term” / “medium-long term” distinction referring to the period during which the territory will benefit from the increase in activity generated by the event.

The appearance of a first economic stimulus linked to an increase in the activity of local businesses mainly coming from: the purchase of goods and services necessary for the organization of the event expenses incurred by people whose visit to the territory is linked to the presence of the event: public, participants, etc.

The last essential point to raise to complete the definition of the field of analysis of impact studies: the importance of delimiting the territory at which the impacts will be measured. The Olympic Games do not necessarily have the same territory as the village garage sale.

To go further on the subject, I advise you to read the study by Eric Maurence available on the website www.greenfrance.org - Measuring the impact of a tourist event – ​​2014 edition

The expenses of the organizers

Calculating the impact resulting from the organization of the event is probably the simplest to carry out as long as we have the active participation of the structures concerned. It is carried out, in fact, from the accounting data of the organizers (revenues – expenses) of which it will be necessary to locate the origin (for income) and the destination (for expenses).

Visitor spending

The calculation of the impact linked to expenses made in the territory by individuals coming for the event will be carried out by multiplying the number of these individuals by an average amount of expenses.

In the economic impact, it is necessary to calculate the differential in revenues and expenditures considered within and outside the territory

Once the economic impact has been calculated, the sustainability of the event remains to be defined to take into account the two other aspects of the sustainability triangle.

• Social impact

• Environmental impact

To have an overall event assessment defining all the benefits, the last impact on the activity is outside the scope of the event, although it influences the economic aspect in the medium term. It simply boils down to how the activity developed by the event evolved in terms of audience and membership in the months that followed.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE ISO 20121 STANDARD IN THE ORGANIZATION OF EVENTS

Inaugurated during the London Olympics in June 2012, the international standard ISO 20121 establishes the framework for a responsible management system applied to events activity and has helped to professionalize the events sector.

This new management standard was created by the events sector for the events sector. It is applicable to any organization concerned with establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving a responsible management system in this area.

It thus serves as a framework for identifying potentially negative impacts of events, removing or mitigating them, and taking advantage of more positive outcomes through improved planning and processes.

GENERAL PRINCIPLE:

ISO 20121 follows a model of continuous performance improvement, which involves taking stakeholders into account.

PLAN

Management's commitment to a Sustainable Development Policy, establishment of objectives, assessment of risks and opportunities.

DO

Identify and provide human and financial resources - manage its activities, products, supply chains and document its procedures.

EVALUATE

Evaluate your performance in relation to sustainable development, monitor, measure and analyze - internal and external audits.

IMPROVE

Implementation of actions on improvement opportunities, weak points and non-conformities identified in the evaluation stage.

But the analysis of this standard deserves a little more time, I therefore advise you to download it (for a fee of course...) from the site www.iso.org

TO CONCLUDE

Ultimately, ensuring the promotion of a destination through the importation or creation of events is necessarily beneficial provided that the required organizational measure and the necessary investment (human and financial) are taken. The subject is almost infinite since we have moved from an empirical organization to, today, studies and standards which can only make the organization of events more efficient.

For my part, I have organized or participated in numerous events of different sizes and I am far from having finished doing them. I simply remember each time, this feeling of happiness or this feeling of fullness once finished. This indescribable emotion except for those who experience it who, I hope, will continue to move me forward.