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.

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.

This volume serves to expand theory-driven understandings of active sport tourism by showcasing five empirical studies examining a variety of active sport tourism contexts. These include table tennis at the World Veteran’s Championships, ultramarathon, running/cycling/triathlon, skiing/snowboarding, and a range of issues such as active ageing and travel-related carbon footprints. The volume also seeks to explore possibilities for future directions in active sport tourism and act as a catalyst for ongoing scholarly inquiry. Travelling to take part in active sporting pursuits is growing in popularity around the world. Active sport tourism encompasses travel to participate in a myriad sports, as well as in competitive participatory sport events. Much of the recent growth in active sport tourism is associated with travel to compete in participatory sport events, notably the "big city" international marathon events; amateur running, triathlon, and cycling events; Masters Games; and team sport tournaments. While the broader sport tourism research literature has tended to focus on spectator-oriented sports events, particularly the mega events such as the Olympic Games, it is only recently that a concerted research agenda in active sport tourism has emerged, making this volume innovative and relevant. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Sport & Tourism.