The term “event management” can puzzle some people who have never thought about its meaning and role in modern society. In fact, event management is a widespread activity, which aims at messaging and connecting people.
The management of events can be initiated on both the local and global levels. Wikipedia explains “event management” as management activities to create and organize festivals, conventions, meetings and other large-scale events. However, the area of events is much broader including dates, parties, sports events, meetings, concerts, charity events, conferences and many other types of people’s communication.
Tourism is not a part of event management. It’s a set of activities related to travelling and learning new places, food, traditions, experiences, and people, of course. Currently, the notion of tourism has no limits, because traditional tourism expunged its borders and plunged into learning the world. Now, tourism can be divided into various types of goals such as ordinary travelling, hiking, shopping tourism, sightseeing, spa tourism, food travelling, extreme tourism and many other options.
Although event management and tourism are different notions, it should be mentioned that they are closely aligned with each other. Actually, regardless of the type of tourism you choose, event management will accompany it within the entire period of activity.
Classification of events
You cannot possibly underestimate the importance of events for tourism. The most popular types of tourism events, regardless of the tourism type, come in a wide range of exciting options. Various types of festivals and events have always existed as significant parts of human society. They are also devised as forms of public display, civic rituals, and collective celebrations, which includes certain tourist events. It is possible to distinguish the following four types:
- Mega events
- Hallmark events
- Major events
- Local events
Tourism value of events
In fact, people in all cultures recognise the need to set aside certain times and spaces for communal creativity and celebration. They can successfully achieve that [un1] in terms of tourism and travelling activities as well because the industry opens many new horizons and provides opportunities to organise events more often and for diverse and multicultural environments. The role of events in tourism destination development should also be noted.
Events tourism goals
The key tourism goal for events is to attract more tourists (especially in off-peak seasons) to serve as a catalyst for urban renewal and to increase the infrastructure and tourism capacity of the destination to foster a positive destination image, which contributes to general place marketing to animate specific attractions or areas.
How Event Management Affects the Tourism Industry
Events in tourism development produce an incredible impact on the industry as a whole and influence a broad range of human activities: politics, environment, socio-cultural, and other aspects. That’s why, when organising such events, you should consider the possible aftermath for each sphere of human activity as well as the potential positive impacts.
Social and cultural impacts
Tourism and event management are said to have evolved from primitive gatherings of people for agricultural or religious reasons into the more modern type of events—large-scale, corporate and governmental—as well as their long history of attracting tourists and establishing host communities as tourist destinations.
Political impacts
The emergence of new political powers, capitalism, new products, and new social relations, as well as a new way of modern life, paved the way for more versatile event tourism development and a growing number of cutting-edge events. Nowadays, events can mitigate or aggravate political situations, which is another lure for tourists.
Economic impacts
The development of events in the economic sense helped solve the problem of unemployment and had an impact on economic growth, especially in developed market economies. The best example for this is the impact of major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games or World Championships of popular sports, on the economic growth of host countries and tourism.
Environmental impacts
It was during the 20th century that tourism hospitality and event management development and all the different types of events reached their peak, approaching what we now consider events. This was caused by the phenomenon of discretionary income, an increase in the purchasing power and standards of consumers, which shifted the focus from fundamental to peripheral needs as well as to environmental issues. When certain parts of society reached a certain economic peak, they shifted to a more thoughtful way of life that included alternative energies, wise ecology, and environmental protection. This also made way for the birth of completely new consumer needs, which increased the demand for a specific range of events and tourism.
Strategic planning in event tourism
Today, it is not surprising that apart from the above-mentioned impacts, events also have the power to affect the formation of a destination’s image and can help with promoting, positioning, and branding it across the globe.
The Place of Event Management in the Tourism
Events act as important motivators for tourism. Every year numerous tourists are attracted by various kinds of events throughout a huge variety of destinations around the globe. In short, the development of tourism in a particular destination is directly concerned with the development of event management.
For example, nobody will be interested in visiting a distant island or city, unless some appealing tourism events are arranged at this place. If you look at the destinations that gained popularity in recent times, you’ll find out that the flow of tourists to this place began after the successful event management. Therefore, it’s the trigger to attract visitors and travelers to a particular destination.
Some destinations are visited by tourists only for a special event, for example, to organize a meditation retreat. This relates to annual concerts and festivals when thousands of people head off to a social event like pilgrims. All of you know about Film Festival in Cannes or Bestival in the UK. Every year such social events are the main attraction for tourists.
Why Event Management is Important in Tourism
We’ve already detailed the importance of event management in tourism. Now, let’s talk about the significance of tourism in event management. These two notions are interrelated activities, while tourism is mostly dependent on effective management of events. Let’s introduce one clear example. Niagara Falls is a popular and prominent place to visit. However, the main flow of tourists started as soon as the event managers had begun to arrange tours and cruises across the basin of Niagara River. These activities have led to the development of other entertainments around this destination. Keep in mind that everything has begun, with a simple event.
Events trigger a boost of tourism
This is the major reason why the role of event management in tourism is so important. Tourists and travelers need to understand why they should visit a particular destination. Therefore, event tourism comes to the rescue. What is event tourism? It can be compared with a small stream that turns into a large river when supported by other streams. Regardless of the activities you offer, e.g. organizing incentive trips, they will definitely attract more customers to your destination.
Events in tourism promote customer loyalty
Tourism event management promotes the loyalty of regular customers. Just imagine that your favorite destination for vacation offers some events which you have not experienced before. For this reason, the customers would prefer to remain loyal to the resort or place they usually visit rather than searching for other options.
Stickiness of social events
This point mostly relates to lonely people who need to find a soulmate or friends. The arrangement of various social events promotes communication of people and building new relationships. As a result, a couple, which was created at a particular destination, would be happy to recreate the romantic moments of their first meeting. In this sense, event management benefits for both tourism and society development.
Weddings as a main social event in tourism
A new trend of arranging weddings in some special places is developing. People want to make this special date incredible and unforgettable. The event managers apply all their efforts to meet the requests of the most demanding customers. What can be better than the beginning of the honeymoon, right after the wedding itself? The next day after the ceremony, the newlyweds don’t need to pack belongings and suffer in airports and aeroplanes. They’re already in place, where they want to be. The role of events in tourism is well demonstrated in this particular case.
Multipurpose Tourism
Management of events provides various opportunities for travellers to spend their time without being bored. If you plan your visit to some exotic country, it doesn’t mean that your vacation will be limited to rambling across the sights and historical monuments of the destination. You can diversify your trip with extreme events or any social activities. Thanks in part to event management, you will surely experience a wide array of emotions and experience many new things.
Is Tourism Important for Event Management?
Since we’ve ascertained that tourism depends on event management, the benefits of tourism should also be mentioned. Tourism is the area or industry, where social events can be implemented. All the above-mentioned examples demonstrate the significance of managing events for tourism.
However, the tourism itself is quite important for social activities. The development of tourism and the introduction of new destinations reveals the huge perspectives for the growth of event management. The majority of most social activities, such as festivals, recreational events, etc., have become possible due to the tourists, which travel around the world in search of new impressions and emotions. Naturally, tourism and event management can exist separately, but their consolidation can bring many benefits not only for the development of tourism but also for the development of the economy of countries or cities in total.
Bottom Line
To make a destination attractive for tourism, detailed development plans are required. These plans should focus on the planning of social events in order to achieve the full potential of tourism. Managing events is the activity that deals with developing and planning various kinds of events for that society. A fruitful integration of event management into touristic activities will win success and attract numerous customers to the target destination. Get started for free and win optimized event planning services for your target industry.
