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 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.

Jon Pack is a Brooklyn-based photographer whose work has been exhibited in galleries in the US and Europe, and has appeared on book covers from publishers including Simon & Schuster and Random House. His previous projects include the limited-edition book Out There; That Thing We Call Nature.

The tourism industry and sporting events are two forces which can have a major socio-economic impact upon the development of individual countries and regions, in helping to make the concept of the 'global village' a reality. This report has been prepared for the first World Conference on Sport and Tourism jointly organised by the International Olympic Committee and the World Tourism Organisation. It seeks to analyse the challenges and future trends in the growth of sports tourism and considers how the opportunities its creates for sustainable development can be most effectively managed.

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.

The Olympic Games have evolved into the most prestigious sport event on the planet. As a consequence, each Games generates more and more interest from the academic community. Sociology, politics, geography and history have all played a part in helping to understand the meanings and implications of the Games. Heritage, too, offers invaluable insights into what we value about the Games, and what we would like to pass on to future generations. Each Olympic Games unquestionably represents key life-markers to a broad audience across the world, and the great events that take place within them become worthy of remembrance, celebration and protection. The more tangible heritage features are also evident; from the myriad artefacts and ephemera found in museums to the celebratory symbolism of past Olympic venues and sites that have become visitor attractions in their own right. This edited collection offers detailed and thought-provoking examples of these heritage components, and illustrates powerfully the breadth, passion and cultural significance that the Olympics engender.This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Heritage Studies.