The Event Life Cycle Model: Analysis Of 2018 Winter Olympics In Pyeongchang

HAT301 Attraction and Event Management2

The Event Life Cycle Model and its Application to Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics 2018

The Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics was held in the year 2018 in Pyeongchang in South Korea and the Event Life Cycle Model could help in analysing the different stages including the formation, growth and staging. For a product life cycle, the main stages include introduction, growth, maturity and decline, but because of the event, there are various stages including the formation, growth and staging that are included in the Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics 2018 (Olympic.org 2019).

The formation stage included the selection of the venue considering the host city of Pyeongchang, South Korea and the stadium where the event was held had been the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium. The venue was sourced by determining whether the event could be successful or not and what values and benefits could it bring to the venue. The registration process is made simple and informative with the inclusion and formation of an intuitive event registration tool, which could manage the registration process at the venue and create scopes for multiple athletes and other well-known personalities to become a part of the event (Essex and de Groot 2016). The formation stage enabled determining the feasibility of the event and how effective the event should be to draw in more people and make the event popular and successful all around the world. The major stakeholders involved are the sports clubs, athletes, cultural groups of the place and with the involvement of businesses and political parties and Government for making the event successful and gained global exposure too. Few of the major activities that were ranged include the Torch Relay, which enhanced the attractiveness of the event (Weidenfeld and Leask 2013).

Before managing the event, the event website has been considered to ensure the central location for storing event related information. The attendees of the event must be engaged with the help of sending emails and by using various social media platforms to raise awareness and interest among the people, furthermore influenced them to become a part of the Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics 2018. The opening as well as the closing ceremonies were arranged with a total number of seats of 35000 spectators and the location was selected in such a way that it could be easy for people to visit the stadium easily (Connell, Page and Meyer 2015). The formation stage also enabled sponsorships with BBC and other sports channels along with ABCNews.com for updates managed during the event. It was also important to manage proper communication process, which enhanced the exposure of the Olympics event among people and encouraged them to become a part of the event willingly. The main aspects that were focused upon included image, identity and communication to maintain a positive brand image (Van der Wagen and White 2018). The bidding decision was also based on the feasibility study, throughapproval by the ownership of event by the global federations was needed.

Formation Stage of Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics 2018

The post event management plan included collecting important data and information from the smart tags and even from the mobile apps, which could also be valuable and effective after the event get finished. Based on the results of the global survey, it was found that most of the event professionals managed the event successfully though higher level of engagement of attendees and ensuring successful event management. One of the major activities in the growth stage is the bidding campaign where the Government of Pyeongchang created journey mapping for the various routes that are followed by individuals to get to the location (Supovitz 2013). The capacity of hotel arranged for the guests and financial guarantees were managed to make sure that the competitors meet the technical; requirements and communications facilitated for making the guests enjoy a hassle free journey and get proper facilities while enjoying the Olympics event to the utmost level possible. The bidding campaigns were also managed with the involvement of Federation President to encourage the voters and obtain their opinions to make sure that the event is done properly and any changes to the campaign can bring favourable outcomes as well (Hall 2013).

The staging stage enabled hosting the various events during the Winter Olympics 2018 and allowing the sports persons and athletes to become a part of the event. The major events included in the Olympics were arranged such as short track speed skating, Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, etc (Preuss 2013). A grant opening and closing ceremony was arranged to attract the attention of viewers and guests of the event while each and every activity at the event were monitored with the use of surveillance cameras by the volunteers present there. The Head of Olympics Association provided a formal speech in front of the guests to ensure that the sports’ activities are promoted and more and more people come to become part of the event every year (Darcy and Taylor 2013). The event started on the 9^th of February and commenced till the 25^th of February and during the completion of the event at Pyeongchang, the winning players were awarded with benefits and honoured by the President as well.

• One of the major reasons for the management of Olympics at Pyeongchang was to provide pubic entertainment and at the same time, promote the sports and sports persons in different kinds of events hosted at the Olympics. The passion for sports is to be replicated and to maintain cultural diversity by making people from various parts of the world become a part of the event without any forms of discrimination based on race, religion, colour, race or creed (Kim, Choi and Kaplanidou 2015). It is recommended to choose another destination for holding the event which could be easily accessible for people and at the same time, do not cause any harm to the ecological balance in nature, which might have caused with the games played during the events in open areas.
• The security was a major issue in the last year’s Olympics event at Pyeongchang. Thus, It is also recommended to appoint skilled and knowledgeable security personnel to ensure managing the event properly and maintain proper security measures to maintaining the health and wellbeing of the guests of the event too
• The addition of cultural themes and glory of the sports event can further assist in persevering the local culture of Pyeongchang and ensure that more guests arte attracted towards the event. This would not only maintain the rich cultural diversity and heritage of the place
• It is also recommended to make arrangements for the guests so that none of them face any issues post event management. This could also create more scopes and opportunities for the tourism industry to make a mark and provide the guests from all over the world with accommodation facilities, food services and other facilities that can make the guests experience an enjoying stay at the place.
• More sponsorships could extend the scopes for marketing and business promotions , furthermore tie up with the sports and energy drinks along with sports accessories brands to increase the awareness of the Olympics game held at Pyeongchang.
• The involvement of online social media platforms and apps is recommended for managing bookings of tickets, which could also make the clients get additional offers and discounts on purchase of tickets at the event and thus the sports event would create an interest among the visitors
• It is also recommended to consider environment friendly approaches to contribute to greener economy and impact less harmfully on the ecological balance in nature
• Adoption of local culture and rich diversity maintenance is essential for making the sports event become popular among every people
• The recommendations also include the tourism and hospitality sectors to make accommodation acclivities available for the guests who would be visiting Pyeongchang during the Olympics games and would stay for nearly 3 weeks. The transportation facilities would allow them to ach the event easily and at the same time, roam other destinations all around to have a relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Reference List

Connell, J., Page, S.J. and Meyer, D., 2015. Visitor attractions and events: Responding to seasonality. Tourism Management, 46, pp.283-298.

Darcy, S. and Taylor, T., 2013. Managing olympic venues. In Managing the Olympics (pp. 99-126). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Essex, S.J. and de Groot, J., 2016. The Winter Olympics: Driving Urban Change, 1924–2022. In Olympic Cities (pp. 84-109). Routledge.

Hall, R.S., 2013. The Event Desktop: Supporting Event-Enabled Clients on the Web. Freie University, Berlin. Retrieved on May, 21.

 Kim, A., Choi, M. and Kaplanidou, K., 2015. The role of media in enhancing people’s perception of hosting a mega sport event: the case of pyeongchang’s winter olympics bids. International Journal of Sport Communication, 8(1), pp.68-86.

Olympic.org 2019. Pyeongchang stage prepared for successful winter Olympic games. Available at: https://www.olympic.org/news/pyeongchang-stage-prepared-for-successful-olympic-winter-games [Accessed on 18th Jan 2019]

Preuss, H., 2013. The contribution of the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games to green economy. Sustainability, 5(8), pp.3581-3600.

Supovitz, F., 2013. The sports event management and marketing playbook (Vol. 72). John Wiley & Sons.

Van der Wagen, L. and White, L., 2018. Event management: For tourism, cultural, business and sporting events. Cengage AU.

Weidenfeld, A. and Leask, A., 2013. Exploring the relationship between visitor attractions and events: definitions and management factors. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(6), pp.552-569.