ognizant Communication Corporation

Event Management, Vol. 6, pp. 213-221
1525-9951/01 $20.00 + .00
Copyright © 2001 Cognizant Comm. Corp.
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¹School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
²Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research, Victoria University
³Australian Centre for Event Management, University of Technology, Sydney

In Australia, the field of event research is relatively young and immature, lacking in consensus as regards research needs and priorities. This article, while not seeking to be prescriptive as regards such needs and priorities, aims to go some way towards laying the foundation upon which more rigorous efforts at establishing a research agenda in the area can be progressed. With this goal in mind, this article seeks first to chart the evolution of the event field in Australia to the point where research has a significant and acknowledged role in its future development. Following on from this discussion, the value to the field of an expanded and prioritized research effort will be considered along with recent preliminary efforts that have sought to progress efforts in this direction. The outcomes of an exploratory study of research priorities involving three broad stakeholder groups, namely, practitioners, government, and academics, will then be discussed. This study involved a review of existing literature to assist in identifying areas for inclusion in the study and as a basis for comparison of results. Outcomes from this study point, among other things, to differing research priorities among stakeholder groups and research ``gaps'' in current and proposed research efforts in the field.

Key words: Research agenda; Research priorities; Stakeholder groups

Address correspondence to Rob Harris, Lecturer, School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, University of Technology, Sydney, P.O. Box 222, Lindfield 2070, Sydney, Australia. Tel: (61 2) 9514 5496; Fax: (61 2) 9514 5195; E-mail: R.Harris@uts.edu.au

¹School of Commerce, University of Adelaide
²Tourism Program, University of Canberra

The estimation of the total economic impact of an event relies on an accurate estimation of the number of visitors who were attracted to the destination because of the event. Where an event has multiple attendances, or a combination of free and ticketed events, this estimation is often difficult, and if ratio estimation from the sample is used, it may be biased. In addition, where the sample size is small, normal sampling error intervals for expenditure estimates will escalate, rendering their use problematic in policy decision making about financial support for the event. This article proposes making more use of known data, such as ticket sales, and proposes some rules for removing bias in the estimation of total visitor numbers. The proposals are illustrated with some numerical examples. It also uses a real example to demonstrate the impact of sample size on error intervals.

Key words: Economic impact; Visitor numbers; Sample estimates

Address correspondence to Professor Trevor Mules, Tourism Program, University of Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Tel: 61 2 6201 5016; Fax: 61 2 6201 2550; E-mail tjm@comedu.canberra.edu.au

¹Centre for Tourism and Hotel Management, Griffith University
²School of Marketing and Management, Griffith University
³School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Southern Cross University
⁴Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research, Victoria University
⁵School of Marketing, University of NSW

While the Summer Olympics is arguably unparalleled in terms of its scale and the potential magnitude of its impacts on tourism in the host city/country, the amount of research aimed at evaluating those impacts is surprisingly limited. Some of the possible reasons for this are explored and the need for a more systematic approach to tourism impact evaluation is emphasized. Apart from accountability considerations associated with the need to demonstrate a dividend from public investment in the event, such research is critical for ensuring that lessons about approaches to more effectively leveraging tourism benefits from future events are derived from the Olympic experience. The Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism's Sydney Olympics Tourism Impacts Study aims to address this objective.

Key words: Tourism impacts; Impact evaluation; Summer Olympics; Event leveraging

Address correspondence to Bill Faulkner, Centre for Tourism and Hotel Management Research, Faculty of Commerce and Management, Griffith University, Gold Coast, PMB 50, Gold Coast Mail Centre, QLD 9726, Australia. Tel: (617) 5594 8732; Fax: (617) 5594 850; Email: b.faulkner@mailbox.gu.edu.au

¹School of Marketing, Tourism and Leisure, Edith Cowan University
²Faculty of Management, University of Calgary
³The Graduate School of Management, The University of Western Australia

This article describes the results of an investigation of the current use and importance of event evaluation criteria by tourism destination authorities (TDAs). The study involved a Delphi survey of Australian and international experts in event evaluation from the public and private sector. Both pre- and post-event evaluation criteria were investigated. The importance of alternative methodological issues, including return on investment (RoI), use of multipliers, and the issue of time switching and event-related travel, was also investigated. The results demonstrate consensus on the frequency of use and importance of a range of criteria and provide a platform for the development of a standardized approach to pre- and post-event evaluation. These pre- and post-event criteria are discussed in detail, and factors that should be considered when framing a model for standardized evaluation of events are suggested.

Key words: Event evaluation; Delphi study; Australia

Address correspondence to Jack Carlsen, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Business, Edith Cowan University, 100 Joondalup Dr., Joondalup WA 6027, Western Australia. Tel: 61-9-4005698; Fax: 61-9-4005840; E-mail: j.carlsen@cowan.edu.au

Conrad N. Hilton College, University of Houston, Houston, Texas

Events are part of a booming industry that continues to grow both domestically and internationally. This increase in popularity has lead to larger and more diverse attendees, making crowd management and crowd control a necessary and integral part of the planning process for any event. This study explores the significance of crowd management and crowd control. It discusses the need for proper operating procedures and the impact of inadequate crowd management and control. The study also provides an analysis of recent legal opinions depicting both adequate and inadequate crowd management techniques.

Key words: Crowd management; Crowd control; Reasonable care; Liability; Crowd security; Communciation; Signage; Operating procedures

Address correspondence to Je'Anna Abbott, Associate Professor, Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun, Room S236, Houston, TX 77204-3902. Tel: (713) 743-2413; Fax: (713) 467 4936; E-mail: jabbott@uh.edu