Leveraging Legacies from Major Sporting Events: The Case of the Tour de Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the legacies left by hosting the Tour de Taiwan and what economic and tourism leveraging strategies are adopted in hosting the Tour de Taiwan The linear sporting event is identified as having a limited time effect upon the host destinations and thus has previously received no research attention The Tour de Taiwan is a recurring sport event (since 1978) which has generated huge social and economic impacts on the host communities in Taiwan While much is known about the impacts of hosting sporting events less is known about strategic actions taken to leverage a sporting event portfolio Field work was conducted from April 2015 to June 2015 Semi-structured interviews content analysis of document and secondary data were conducted The interviewees were recruited from the Chinese Taipei Cycling Association local government officials media representatives and event experts The interview outline was produced according to the history of the Tour de Taiwan secondary data and experts’ suggestions Content analysis of documents notes and memos used a thematic approach Besides triangulation was used to ensure the reliability and validity of the data The results showed some significant legacies left by hosting the Tour de Taiwan including in the economic social and cultural and environmental spheres emphasizing that “triple bottom line” leveraging should be focused on; the economic and tourism leveraging model highlights short- and longer-term strategic objectives opportunities and specific leveraging means (i e the Taipei Cycle Show co-branding route arrangement showcasing via event advertising and reporting) The study concludes by suggesting that triple-bottom-line legacy leveraging cross-leveraging strategies planning ancillary events and adequate evaluation instruments for event outcomes are key factors in leveraging an event portfolio

Date of Award	2015 Sept 9
Original language	English
Supervisor	Shang-Chun Ma (Supervisor)