Sports events and tourism: the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix

Citation

Wardrop, K. (2010), "Sports events and tourism: the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 1 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijefm.2010.43401aae.003

Sports events and tourism: the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix

Article Type: Practitioner perspective on some of the papers in this issue From: International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Volume 1, Issue 1

The case study “Sports events and tourism: the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix” in this volume of the journal identifies some of the powerful drivers that now shape the form of festivals and events, for example, media coverage, promoters terms of engagement and alignment with sponsors brand values and messaging. These can sometimes be at odds with community needs from festivals and events. For festival and event promoters, especially in these difficult economic times, the pressures to secure financial sponsorship support can often be powerful defining factors on the nature and form of festivals and events.

This case study provides useful insights for practitioners on the translation of sports event tourism strategies in action. The example of Singapore’s experience with the Formula One Grand Prix promoters and global media’s audience targets, with the addition of the demanding criteria for staging of events based on the requirements of major global brands, raised questions in my mind around the challenges of balancing destinations needs to create authenticity and uniqueness of visitor experience, and the global brand homogeneity of events such as a Formula One Grand Prix. Singapore’s aims were to promote the brand “Uniquely Singapore” and to encourage interaction with the local populace, yet the demands of the Formula One Grand Prix promoters and timing of the event to reach European and North American television audiences dictated a night time event.

The case study caused me to consider the conflicting nature of, on the one hand the desire of destinations to use events such as the Formula One Grand Prix to project brand messaging to global audiences, and the challenges of matching corporate objectives and brand messaging with those of the events media and corporate sponsors. Can alignment of brand values ever be fully reconciled?

The case study at the same time also raises questions about how the balance can be achieved between these high level promotional objectives and wider economic impacts and benefits. Were Singapore’s objectives of perception changing from support of this event realised? The experience of the negative impacts on ordinary business activity (non event related leisure and business tourism) for the Grand Prix period being an interesting outcome. Further analysis in the paper of this displacement of business would have been of practitioner interest. The issue and on going reputational impacts of “rate gouging” and the experiences of varying accommodation rates is a “hot topic” and is also of interest to practitioners. The transient visitor levy for guests targeted at particular hotels during the period of the event, and the success or otherwise of this model to raise funding to cover the cost of hosting the event, would have been worthy of fuller exploration in this paper.