Question:
Discuss about the Managing the Environment for Tourism and Events.
The QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival from Hong Kong’s Wanchai district is a one of a kind festival. It is hosted by Hopewell and was first launched in the year 2010. It started out as a form of celebration for the neighborhood people and tenants at Wanchai. The festival is held with the aim of celebrating the unique lifestyle and culture of the people of Wanchai district. The festival is even serving as a platform for both the communities and the tourists for mingling and learning more regarding the latest developments inside Queen’s Road East (QRE) and even enjoying the festival events together. It provides the opportunity of enjoying a whiskey tour of the finest distilleries of the world, along with some of the best collectables, depleting, award-winning and vintage whiskies around. There are also other special alcoholic beverages, cocktails and mocktails. The participants have the freedom of strolling through the charming Lee Tung Avenue and Queen’s Road East, at around 20specialty shops and restaurants, having the favorite whiskies and the fine wines. The people with no tickets can savor French canapés, and some other wide variety of entertainments events like bartending, dance performances, live orchestra, wineglass calligraphy and many more other fun activities. The festival is built on the icon of QRE, and it continues upholding the message of promoting environmental protection and advocating the living culture of Wanchai, bringing happiness and delight to the local people. The festival is a way for promoting the unique culture of Wanchai and driving the leisure development in the district. The festival not just displays the rich and spirited characteristics of the district but even reinforces it as a community having diversity (Qre.com.hk 2017). This report would be looking at the impact of the event and recommend on ways to improve it.
Events and festivals are a powerful platform and when they get planned well, they positively make a lasting impact. These festivals and events have the potential of doing much more than just generating profits (Duffy and Mair 2017). Most often festivals and events get planned and produced in a manner with the main objective of delivering certain impacts on the society, community, destination, economy, and vice versa. The duration and management also have an impact on the event or festival. Communities generally look for ways to manage the unemployment, low income, low consumption with the help of events and festivals. They have hopes that festivals would drive tourism which would in turn help in coming out of such difficult situations. The community even has the hope of preserving their unique cultures and making the people feel proud of their ways (Nieto 2015). In this context, the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival was planned for increasing the number of visitors, income and relieving the present situation of the district of Wanchai in Hong Kong.
Staging of events attract people from all places either as spectators or as participants, or even just the local people. The event might influence both of these groups based on its nature and scale, and on the communities that are further afield or are not directly involved with the event. Simultaneously, people are even involved with events and festivals as its organizers too. What is important in this case are the interactions and relationships within and between the different stakeholder groups that might be going into determining the extent and nature of the social and cultural impact of the festivals or events (Yolal et al. 2016). Hosting of any event or festival – in this case the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival – brings about different immediate, predictable and identifiable social consequences that arise from the interaction amongst the local people and the tourists, from different development and activities that are related with the event and from the range of local participation in the event. These kinds of impacts are similar with those related with tourism development in a more general manner, like the tangible influences of crime, congestion and anti-socialistic behavior, along with wider transformations that are in the form of cultural commoditization. These most of the time gets balanced against the economic consequences of events and can be managed. In some cases, each group of the stakeholders in a wide-scale festival is distinctive, whereas, in small events all the stakeholders might actually be members of the local community (Getz and Page 2016).
Events of all forms get increasingly utilized or promoted for enhancement of the identity of the location, both internally and externally. On an external level, events potentially serve for position or the market place, for distinguishing them in a situation where the places are turning similar or homogenous and allowing them competing in a more effective manner among a wide range of stakeholders, including tourists, investors, policymakers and so on. The idea is essentially economic – for regeneration or building of the local economy by means of attracting inward investment, increased tourist visitation, new businesses and expenditure (Folgado-Fernández, Hernández-Mogollón and Duarte 2017). Festivals like the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival also leads to a rise in tourism and related economic benefits. The growing popularity of this festival can be explained by the surged number of tourists who are looking for authentic experiences, along with the inevitable losses related with tourism development besides enhancing community identity. Building of the identity of the location is not a given, but is a function of three elements, which are the physical environment, socially constructed meaning of locations and people’s experiences of locations. The location of Wanchai only turned into a suitable location after it was endowed with value by the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival. Thus, it is required that the impact of the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival is considered not just from the perspectives of different stakeholders and non-stakeholders, but also within a place framework, as the different stakeholders would be having different cultural understanding of locations and the different reasons for putting them to use (Van Niekerk and Van Niekerk 2017). In this context, the cultural identity and the meaning of the location might be reflecting the festival and as a result of that true culture of the QRE festival is replaced by the focus on the spectacle as the chosen experience of the visitor.
Events today are a way for regeneration of cities. QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival is a way for Wanchai to be creating an image of themselves internationally and attracting internal and external investment with the goal of promoting long term growth. This festival is crucial in improving the image of the host country. People enjoy their visit to the city and keep on returning, which in turn increases the tourism revenue. It has even been able to raise the awareness of the city, turning it slowly into a travel destination. This phenomenon has significantly increased the competition between the cities of the adjoining areas in order to acquire valuable stakeholders, which include investors, consumers and politicians (Lee et al. 2014). QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival has been vital in lengthening tourist seasons, extending peak season in the community.
Much emphasis is put on economic impact of the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival because of the fact that the organizers of the event and the government needs meeting the budget targets and for justifying the cost and even due to these impact being easily assessable. After the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival is over, the cost of substantial contribution to the economic impact assessment occurs. The fraction of the cost spent is specifically important and even provides opportunities and advantages for the communities that live in Wanchai. Economic benefits justify hosting of this festival, but it is difficult to predict and thus is a bit difficult justification (Diedering and Kwiatkowski 2015). In many cities, regions and countries, these kinds of events and festivals are extremely sought after all over the world. Even the government is prepared for offering huge funding initiatives for attracting events and for allocating large expenditure for upgrading the facilities required for these events. Event tourism development which is using existing attributes most of the time brings a range of benefits for the host communities, in this case Wanchai (Yeoman et al. 2014). The better infrastructure, services, access and new investments for QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival have helped strengthen community life in Wanchai.
Events are also crucial in attracting more visitors and investments and therefore creating new jobs and contributing to the economic growth of the region or city. However, stress must be given on the quality and duration of these workplaces as these generally create jobs that are most of the time part-time, short lived and poorly paid. Festivals like QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival even generate extended economic intangible costs and benefits. These kind of intangible resources are hard to be quantify as objectively and accurately like the financial impacts. However, they need to be taken into account while assessing the complete economic influence on the local people (Davies, Coleman and Ramchandani 2013).
Apart from the other event consequences, the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival also have some positive and negative effects on the host communities. It revives the social and cultural life of the local people, building community pride, offering sense of identity, increasing community participation and pride of the location or developing the image of the destination (Jepson and Clarke 2014). The long term success of QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival is at times threatening the long term success of the festival and therefore it is important that the locals are accepting the activities of the event. Tourism that upsurges because of this festival encourages community pride as the visitors are choosing to visit the place for a specific reason (Ziakas 2016). The well-presented Wanchai district helps the visitors feel welcome and even contributes to the community pride sense. QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival has provided the communities at Wanchai an opportunity for cultural development and bringing a sense of sharing and belonging to the community, with excitement, spectacle and self-esteem called about by being the center of international attention. The negative influence of QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival on the community can include anti-social behavior, congestion, crime, crowding, community life disruption, and community alienation and displacement, vandalism, noise and littering. Due to the effect of alcohol, uncontrolled activities occur, which possesses potential threats to the people and the natural and man-made locations in the district of Wanchai. These kinds of interruptions have increased pressure and forced local population to be competing for the use of the required resources with tourists (Moufakkir and Pernecky 2014).
The period for which an event is carried out has a role to play in its quality, success and failure. Events that go on for a long time can bring about a lot of negative influence on the event. It uses up more resources, which makes the situation difficult for both the tourists and the local people. Events that are going on for a long time can make the participants lose out on interest. Moreover, long running events bring social disruptions, increases expenditure, and creates different kinds of pollution, congestion. On the other hand, events that are compact have the capability of engaging the public, both local and the tourists with multiple types of activities included in a shorter span of time. Moreover, most of the time compact events display creativity, which helps attract more visitors (Hamilton, Tee and Prideaux 2015). The QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival includes multiple activities and is comparatively short spanned, which is why the event attracts so many people from all across the world and is quite popular in the region.
The QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival is probably the biggest festival of the Wanchai district. With the help of this festival, the district is put on the world map, gets the opportunity of reviving the economy, boosting tourism, modernizing and increasing the situations of infrastructure, and finally completely transforming the area that continues living the legacy of the festival even after it is over. This legacy, both in terms of management and infrastructure experience is a huge introduction for future festivals and events (Hussenot and Missonier 2016). An alcoholic festival might not seem like an attractive event for some, but QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival has the potential of hosting great shows that can largely attract the sponsors and the media. The whiskey and wine distilleries find this festival to be a great promotional platform that can help their business attract the interest of a larger number of public. The main focus of the organizers of this festival rests on the essence of the distrsict and the distilleries, which is basically getting the best results out of this festival and achieves excellence. QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival make use of technological means and some exceptional facilities that they constantly strive to improve. The next thing in its organization is televising the event, as without that there would be no impact on the wider audience (Nickson 2013). The most important part of the management of this festival is satisfying the sponsors, who provide the financial resources for making it possible. QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival attempts at maintaining a balance between these three elements, along with making sure enough public sector support is generated.
The management makes sure to avoid unnecessary focus on elements like who is providing the resources or who is making such festivals visible. What actually matters is what the distilleries are offering, what the people are enjoying and what is attracting more participants. Moreover the management also takes care of making sure the locations are equipped with knowledge, availability and expertise, for ensuring the granting agency would be having the confidence on the city of having all the ideal qualities related to environment, facilities and climate. The management makes sure they are returning the events to the owner with added value and the best thing the destination can offer (Rojek 2014).
Taking help from different theories inside event and festival studies, more can be understood regarding the organization and management of the festival. The social exchange theory states that different social actions are dissimilar to straightforward economic actions. People who are benefitting from this festival would most likely show a positive attitude towards it, in comparison to the critical attitude shown by those with none perceived (Cook et al. 2013). Inside the learning theory, active involvement is asked from the learner (Harasim 2017). Four kinds of learning can be discerned at festivals like the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival: visual, verbal, written and experiential. The self determination theory states that intrinsically motivated behavior takes place in the absence of external reward or if the people are having a free choice. The participants of this festival choose to be a part of it out of interest and not because they would be getting rewards from attending it (Adams, Little and Ryan 2017). In this context, the anthropological exchange theory states that the main focus is on the symbolic value of the events in a cultural context (Chagnon 2017). Inside the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival one form of modern symbolism can be seen – branding of the event which actually gives meaning to it.
As discussed, it has been understood that different festivals, including the QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival has managed diversifying their strategies for regaining the market shares. The festival at times loses its momentum and the public interest decrease. The challenge of enhancing the customer experience at this festival comes up in front of the organizer group. They can take up a lot of options for solving this issue. The first thing that the organizers can do for QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival participants are making the whole registration and ticket collecting process online so that no one has to stand in line for hours. Hopewell can use the mobile connection of the attendees for delivering up-to-the-minute event details, schedule changes, reminders, and much more. The attendees must also be provided with easy and instant access to the event materials for them to share, download and recommend. One important recommendation that the organizers can implement is providing the attendees with the opportunity of expressing their opinion with the help of online survey tools, which get delivered and reported real-time. The ability of reaching the attendees in the moment and even being able to make alterations while the event is going on is the biggest positive of event management.
Conclusion
The QRE Wine and Whisky Walk Festival from Hong Kong’s Wanchai district is a one of a kind festival. The festival is held with the aim of celebrating the unique lifestyle and culture of the people of Wanchai district. The festival is even serving as a platform for both the communities and the tourists for mingling and learning more. It provides the opportunity of enjoying a whiskey tour of the finest distilleries of the world, along with some of the best collectables, depleting, award-winning and vintage whiskies around. This report looked at the different impacts of the event and recommended ways to improve it. Festivals and events by their own nature get conducted inside spatial and temporal boundaries. Events and festivals are a powerful platform and when they get planned well, they positively make a lasting impact. Most often festivals and events get planned and produced in a manner with the main objective of delivering certain impacts on the society, community, destination, economy, and vice versa. The duration, background, and management also have an impact on the event or festival. This study has been able to encapsulate a number of them, clarifying specific impact of the festival and the elements that in turn influence it.
References
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Chagnon, N., 2017. Adaptation and human behavior: an anthropological perspective. Routledge.
Cook, K.S., Cheshire, C., Rice, E.R. and Nakagawa, S., 2013. Social exchange theory. In Handbook of social psychology(pp. 61-88). Springer Netherlands.
Davies, L., Coleman, R. and Ramchandani, G., 2013. Evaluating event economic impact: rigour versus reality?.International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 4(1), pp.31-42.
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