The first book to examine Olympic Tourism, this timely, breakthrough text offers a fascinating insight into the world's most famous mega-event.

Going far beyond being just a mega sport event, the Olympic Games are, and have been in the past, important settings for tourism and cultural change. Hosting the Olympic Games presents a unique opportunity for countries to promote, regenerate, and develop cities and regions, and to firmly locate them within an increasingly competitive global tourism marketplace. From Athens to Rio de Janeiro, Olympic landmark buildings, ‘districts’, and ‘parks’ have permanently transformed cities and regions, and gained tremendous material and symbolic value as tourist attractions. On another level, the Olympic Games produce a kaleidoscopic range of intangible and quasi-religious engagements with place and spectacle. They have a tremendous impact on the image of the host country, while invoking collective memories and touching on emotions such as suspense, compassion, togetherness, and pride. Tourism has also become a major watchword in ongoing debates on the ‘legacy’ of the Olympic Games, and it deeply penetrates discourses on social justice and cultural change on a local, national and global scale. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change.

The importance of Sport Tourism as a developing science and Sport Events specifically is on the increase. This is especially true when experts say that sport tourism is big business. South Africa, like most other countries, hosts thousands of sport events each year. Therefore, destinations compete fiercely not only to host these events but also to offer quality events. All this is happening despite the fact that there is a lack of properly trained sport and event managers. Therefore, the purpose of this book is toe equip the reader with specific knowledge and skills about the sport and events tourism phenomenon. The book deals with a wide variety of topics, stretching from the history of sport tourism to new and globally important issues such as the greening of sport events. The book is a useful tool for both students and practitioners alike, since it also provides guidelines and case studies.

This book is a collection of selected papers presented at the International Conference of Marketing and Management Sciences held from 23 to 25 May 2008 in Athens, Greece. The papers focus on how globalization has had significant impact on companies, societies and individuals alike. They discuss the need for new strategies and practices that can help cope with changes that arise due to globalization. Written in a simple manner, this book will be of interest to academics studying and teaching marketing and management courses and to managers dealing with strategies to cope with changes due to globalization./a

The Olympic Games go far beyond just being a sporting event. Staged as a truly global spectacle every four years, the Games are pivotal sites of touristic activity, social encounter, and cultural change. Unlike any other event, the Olympics harness a ‘humanistic’ and ‘universal’ setting for celebrating global togetherness, staging cultural diversity, and performing (his)stories of national identity and provenance. Over time, and commensurate with the motto ‘higher, faster, stronger’, the Olympic Games have conjured up powerful imageries of modernisation, mobility and progress. At the same time, they have also functioned as arenas of conflict, where contested ideologies of nationhood, race and gender have been repeatedly fought over. Hosting the Olympic Games presents a unique opportunity for countries to promote, regenerate and develop cities and regions and to firmly locate them within an increasingly competitive global tourism marketplace. At the same time, Olympic landmark buildings, ‘districts’ and ‘villages’ have lastingly transformed cities and regions and have gained tremendous material and symbolic value as tourist attractions and heritage sites. On another level, the Olympic Games produce a kaleidoscopic range of intangible engagements with place and spectacle, invoking collective memories, and touching on emotions such as suspense, humour, joy, compassion, embarrassment, etc.

Hosting the Olympic Games: Uncertainty, Debates and Controversy provides a broad and comprehensive analysis of past Olympic and Paralympic events, shedding critical light on the future of the Games with a specific look at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. It draws attention to the debates and paradox that hosting the Games presents for the contemporary city. Employing a range of interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approaches, individual chapters highlight the various controversies of the Games throughout the bidding process, the event itself and its aftermath. Social Science-based chapters place strong emphasis on the vital importance of sustainable strategy for contemporary host cities. Along with environmental concerns whether atmospheric, microbiological or otherwise, many other requirements, costs and risks involving security and public expenditure among others are explored throughout the book. Including a variety of international and comparative case studies from a range of contributing academics, this will be essential reading for students and researchers in the field of Event studies as well as various disciplines including Tourism, Heritage studies and Urban and Environmental studies.