Event Experiences - Devising A Precise Definition Of Events Is Difficult - Essay Writing - Assessment Answer

Event Experiences Assignment

Assignment Task

“Devising a precise definition of events is difficult, if not impossible, as it may depend on your perspective as either an event organiser or an event attendee.” Discuss

Introduction

Hallmark events, as explained by Getz et al (2012), refer to the events that are usually hosted or conducted by a country or an area in order to achieve higher prominence in the international tourist market. The standard definition of hallmark event that is commonly accepted and utilized is the one established by Ritchie (1984), who has established hallmark events are “major one-time or recurring events of limited duration, developed primarily to enhance the awareness, appeal and profitability of a tourism destination in the short/long term”. It is usually observed that the hallmark events are usually different from the events generally hosted by the country because making the event different helps in attracting higher attention from the tourists, thus establishing higher prominent place of host country. While Karadakis et al (2010) have established hallmark events to be primarily sports events such as Olympics, football world cup etc, Hospers (2011) argues that hallmark events can be exhibitions, trades, fairs, carnival or any other mega event. A slightly different explanation has been offered by Hall and Page (2012), who argue that hallmark events are generally organized or with a specific theme in mind so that people can be attracted towards it. As explained by Mair and Whitford (2013), Oktoberfest that is held in Germany every year is one such hallmark event that has been developed based on a specific theme and is organized every year for increasing tourism. The essay thus evaluates if logistics is a key factor responsible for the success or failure of hallmark events or not.

Argument

There are several important factors that have been identified to be responsible for the success of hallmark events. One of the major success factors of hallmark events as identified by Goldblatt (2010) is the key attraction and unique selling point offered to people attending the event. Goldblatt (2010) argues that a hallmark event would be successful only if it has something new and different to offer to the attendees. An example of which is Carnival that takes place in Rio, Brazil. As explained by Inkson and Minnaert (2012), Rio Carnival is one of its kind and its unique selling point is that it provides great attractions in terms of parades, performances etc. and hence attracts millions of national as well as international tourists. Other factors identified by Hede and Kellett (2011) to be responsible for the success or failure of a given firm include the planning process, marketing, satisfactory experience for the visitors, catering to customers’ needs and expectations, cultural fit of the event with the place and lastly infrastructure.

Logistics is an important part of planning of hallmark events that is often considered to be important for its success. As discussed by Van der Wagen (2010), logistics and its management in the event industry include management of travelling, infrastructural planning, procuring all required technologies and equipment, managing security and even maintaining schedules. Logistics hence plays and has become an integral component of success of hallmark events because effective logistics management helps in ensuring that the event is conducted and carried out without any glitches (Van der Wagen, 2010). Emery (2012) argues that hallmark events usually tend to occur repetitively and are hosted for improving the tourism image of the host country and hence if there are logistics and planning issues in one of the events, people would not visit the same from next year, which would lead to failure.

In addition, the dependence of success of hallmark events on logistics planning and management has also been identified and discussed by Musgrave (2011), who argues and discusses that effective logistics and logistics planning are essential for hallmark events so that the organizers and hosts have the required permissions for organizing the event. Musgrave (2011) explains that these events are carried out internationally and hence require the use of different venues, infrastructure etc. and hence suitable permissions and approvals are required much in advance to ensure that the event is carried out without any problem. The discussions by Shahwe (2011) have evaluated the hallmark event of Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and identified the problems faced in the organization of the 2011 World Cup. Discussions by Shahwe (2011) reveal that the chosen venue, Eden park, is present in a residential zone in Auckland, New Zealand and hence there were several problems faced in obtaining approvals and confirmation for using the same, which added to problems of organizing the event as it was difficult to get people in and out of the stadium.

However, these discussions can be contradicted by the argument presented by Della Lucia (2013), who has presented a differing point of view. Della Lucia (2013) argues that logistics is not necessary only for hallmark events and in fact organizers must not pay much attention to the logistics aspects of events but rather the way the event can be made attractive to visitors. Lin (2012) also discusses that if the offerings of the event are well developed and attractive for the potential and target visitors, logistics will not play a very important role and thus it is the attractions and offerings of the event that need to be focused upon and not the logistics. However, argues that logistics is extremely crucial for a hallmark event so that people are able to reach the venue. Lin (2012) explains that since people attending hallmark events such as FIFA World Cup travel from all over the world, they will not be aware of the transportation facilities and routes to reach to the event venue and hence logistics management becomes important.

The same can be proven by the study of the example of London Olympics. As explained by FTA (2012), organizers of London Olympics developed a special Olympic Route Network (ORN) for facilitating transport of people to the desired venue. FTA (2012) explains that the network was planned and managed in a way that it allowed the athletes, officials and even Olympic workers to reach the venue on time without having any impact o the regular schedules. It is not only London, but as discussed by Fussey et al (2012), transportation management has been crucial for the success of any Olympics because countries often tend to develop and build new venues for the event and hence guiding people and providing them feasible transport options is essential to make sure that they reach the venue on time. Cashman (2016) has further established this with the help of 2014 FIFA World Cup that was held in Brazil. Cashman (2016) explains that the existing transportation system of Brail was not adequate and sufficient to cater to the transportation of so many people and hence in order to cater to the needs of additional crowd at the time of world cup, new transport systems had to be developed and even managed well to ensure success of the event.

Conclusion

It can be hence deuced based on the discussions that logistics is indeed a key success or failure component for hallmark events. Hallmark events are not only usually carried out on a large scale, thus requiring suitable logistics management, but are also usually carried out internationally. It has been found that international tourists require help and feasible transport options, which has thus made logistics an integral element of success or failure of such hallmark events.