Tbl for Tourism Events

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) – social, economic and environmental – is vital for sustainable development agenda. Festivals and events are considered to be core generators of tourism as it increases revenue and visitation to a destination, and are signifiers of individual, civic, state and globalized identities. The progress of large, high impacting events, like the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics Games, has amplified interest in the marketing aspects of it being able to enhance the economy, the reputation and image of the destination (Heslop, Nadeau, O’reilly and Armenakyan, 2013). Political decision makers, however, often fail to consider the impact of the event on their community and the environment. It is essential for policy makers to identify possible impacts and develop policy to intervene outcomes.

Monitoring and evaluating event outcomes has grown into a vital legitimating vehicle as there are concerns of how government intervention in major festivals and events are rendered legitimate and whether the desired outcomes are achieved. Legitimising policy intervention, with the help of the TBL, can be used to reveal the benefits at work in engaging particular procedures to validate narrowly defined market-led effects accruable from venture in events. (Foley, McGillivray and McPherson, 2012) The TBL have been established to aid in bridging the gap among sustainability application and values. Nevertheless, these evaluation instruments and good governance through participation can compromise the efficiency of the assessments if personal monetary goals are favoured over larger public aims. (Tyrrell, Paris and Biaett, 2012)

As a key instrument in destination image regeneration and positive political impact on their cities and their individual career, Economic Impact Assessment (EIA) is becoming increasingly attractive to political decision makers. EIA offers an instrument to evaluate the outcome of events on the economy which are beneficial in making decisions...