Part 1 Introduction
1 Managing the Visitor Economy: Concepts, Collaborations, and Cases
MICHAEL B. DUIGNAN*
University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
Managing the visitor economy sounds, on the face of it, like a functional endeavour. Indeed, it is and the contributing authors and I hope reading this book will be of use in that regard. However, these chapters offer much more: a vast array of philosophical, political, cultural, and ethical perspectives on how best to organise the visitor economy. The book presents a series of international cases, from Cambodia to China, Egypt to the British cathedral city of Lincoln. Therefore, it, if not explicitly, implicitly intimates a view on âhow things are doneâ differently around the world and at various levels of analysis, whether that be assessing Maltaâs national overtourism problem, or creating dementia-friendly destinations across Scotlandâs visitor sites.
Though recognising individual difference, the chapters are united in their common pursuit of supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals, accessed 9 July 2021) too. This is significant as utilising the UN SDGs as a normative organising framework for how we all think about, plan, and manage a âgoodâ visitor economy is increasingly ubiquitous. For reference, the UN SDGs build on the preceding UN Millennium Development Goals (https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals, accessed 9 July 2021) under the umbrella of other rights-based movements, more notably the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights, accessed 9 July 2021).
The chapter authors and I commit to these ideals through relating each chapterâs significance to inclusive and sustainable development agenda and specific SDGs, alongside policy and practical advice for those of you likely to and already influencing the management of the visitor economy. Each author utilised a research-informed learning approach insofar as they collected data themselves to inform the focus and findings of each chapter. This is significant for two reasons. First, each chapter follows a highly structured approach, as one might expect of a peer-reviewed research article, allowing readers to follow easily how the argument was developed from beginning to end. Second, and relatedly, many of the chapter findings, discussions, and conclusions are rigorously supported not only by an examination of key literature but by the authorsâ own empirical work, often working with stakeholders at the heart of the visitor economy â supporting an industry informed learning approach too. Take, for example, Chapter 6, Professor Fyall and Professor Haraâs collaborative chapter with Mostafa Selima from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, concerning the creation of a new flagship visitor attraction, the Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Several others have explicitly written with (e.g. Chapter 4 â Professor Weeâs piece on German Heimat tourists co-written with Werner Gilde) or have worked closely with key stakeholders in the visitor economy to bring readers closer to the phenomenon under investigation and the industry and/or policy quandary at the heart of the chapter (e.g. Professor Halpenny and Dr Yanâs work at the âIce on Whyteâ festival for Chapter 5). Readers will also find at the beginning of each chapter a conceptual framework illustrating the key issues, ideas, concepts, theories, etc. guiding the theoretical and empirical focus of each piece. Often, such clarity can be missing. However, a clear and concise conceptual framework is vital if the reader is to (i) fully understand the central ideas driving each work, and (ii) understand how these ideas correspond to the learning objectives presented at the beginning of every chapter. For those who have been generous enough to read my work this far, I hope very much that this collection satiates what appears to be the increasing appetite of readers and students alike for exposure to rigorous debate in and out of the classroom.
2 Studying the Complexities of Events and Festivals and Relationships to the Visitor Economy
MARTIN ROBERTSON1*, JUDITH MAIR2, LEONIE LOCKSTONE-BINNEY3, AND MICHAEL B. DUIGNAN4
1Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK; 2University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia 3Griffith University, Southport, Australia; 4University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
Highlights
âą Argues festivals and events are complex management and organisational contexts.
âą Suggests overlaying events management studies with organisational studies is a fruitful space for theoretical and applied analysis.
Learning Objectives
âą To illustrate how festivals/events offer a unique organisational setting for management scholars to conduct empirical analysis and drive theory development.
âą To suggest ways festival/event scholars can draw on management and organisational theory as a way to better examine and understand the complex processes and practices of production and consumption that characterise small-, medium-, and particularly large-scale sporting and cultural events/festivals.
âą To evaluate and explain why the two points above are needed and how to achieve this.
Introduction
This chapter reasons that festivals/events offer a unique organisational setting for management scholars to conduct empirical analysis and drive theory development. And, conversely, how festival/event scholars can draw on management and organisational theory as a way to better examine and understand the complex processes and practices of production and consumption that characterise small-, medium-, and particularly large-scale sporting and cultural events/festivals. This argument emerged in 2019 as a key outcome of the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE) 29th Annual Conference: Special Interest Group (SIG) on âEventsâ, and we use this chapter to take a deeper look at why this could be of value to both sides and how this could be achieved.
Sector Studies Linking Up to Broader Literatures
Driven by the increasing profile of major cultural, religious, and sporting occasions, the popularity of events is at an all-time high. Capitalising upon this interest, event management and event studies has emerged in recent decades as a field of study, closely related to leisure, tourism, and hospitality. A number of reviews and summations of the extant literature (Getz, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2012; Harris et al., 2000; Lee and Back, 2005; Yoo and Weber, 2005; Mair, 2012; Kim et al., 2013; Mair and Whitford, 2013; Lockstone-Binney, 2018; Lockstone-Binney and Ong, 2019) have tracked the burgeoning interest in the field and the growing body of events research.
Seminal in the field is the work of Donald Getz in terms of mapping the scope and boundaries of event management education and research. Getzâs numerous reviews have situated âevent studiesâ as the highest level of event education (2007, 2008), positioned at the pinnacle of a pyramid structure, with what he labels the more applied level of âevent design and event productionâ at the base and âevent managementâ the intermediary between the two. In a later work, Getz (2012) mapped the dominant discourses in the field. Most thoroughly he mapped a classical discipline-based discourse that draws upon social science disciplines to explain event experiences, incorporating social, cultural, environmental, and economic phenomena, as distinct from the more applied discourses of âevent tourismâ and âevent managementâ. In doing so, he called for âthose who consider themselves to be event scholars to assess and interpret the vast and growing literature from many disciplines and fieldsâ (Getz, 2012, p. 182).
With events forming an increasingly regular part of everyday life while utilising public space and temporary structures, the importance of effective management is highlighted. This professionalisation has facilitated the bridging of the gap between applied event knowledge and event studies. Nevertheless, event studies and event management suffer from a lack of acceptance as a recognised field of study (Baum et al., 2013).
Events research initially focused on impact assessments relating to economics and finance (Kim et al., 2013). These facilitated interest in event managementâs organisational aspects, including studies of event marketing, operations, trends, and forecasts (Park and Park, 2016). As the field has evolved, the focus has shifted to examine attendees and their experiences, particularly concerning motivation, expectations, satisfaction, and other behavioural and experiential dimensions (Kim et al., 2013). These themes continue to be discussed within the events literature as a broader range of events become study subjects.
The development of basic theories grounded in the event experience has been slow to eventuate, despite recognition that such development would lend credence to event studiesâ status as a disciplinary field (Getz, 2000; Baum et al., 2013; Getz and Page, 2016; Duignan, 2021a, 2021b). Additionally, the events literature has been critiqued as lacking criticality (Baum et al., 2013). Park and Parkâs (2016) study of the topic trends of event management research from 1998 to 2013 speculates that instrumentality dominates the analysis of events, with studies often only concerned with the proximate value of events to allied sectors (Getz, 2012; Baum et al., 2013), rather than the study of event value in and of itself. In addition, this instrumentality has overwhelmingly been viewed with a positive lens, without sufficient critical reflection (Rojek, 2014). The rise of critical event studies (Lamond and Platt, 2016; Spracklen and Lamond, 2016; Robertson et al., 2018b) is an evolution in the field. This follows the urging of Tribe (2008) to resist an overly positivist agenda by engaging in critical research to pave the way for creating evaluation and governance structures better equipped to advocate for ethical practices.
Robertson and colleaguesâ (2018b) edited collection on critical event studies published in the Event Management journal offers clear evidence of an emerging transition in event studies, acknowledging a movement towards critical events studies. Given the universal nature of organised events in modern society, it is important not to underestimate event studiesâ capacity to determine, affect, and/or drive new paths of research. The second part of this chapter speaks to how management and organisation studies (MOS) scholars can take advantage of events to reshape existing thinking and develop new MOS discipline ideas. Likewise, event management and event studies would benefit from this multidisciplinary research agenda to garner broader acceptance and recognition of an emerging academic field.
Making the Case: Festivals and Events as Complex Management and Organisational Settings
The following segment is written for two purposes. First, to aid studentsâ understanding of the organisational and operational complexity of planning, managing, and delivering events and festivals. Second, it is used to build the case for events and festivals as a nascent yet critically important âexploitable contextâ for MOS scholars to use as a way to reshape existing â and drive new â concepts and ideas. This is suggested to be particularly important as MOS scholars typically use the âfirmâ level as the principal object of analysis. There is further work needed to apply and test propositions in an events ...