Hallmark event Tu Anh Do 18809104 PDF

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HALLMARK EVENTS THS2HME (BE-1/BU-1) Student name: Tu Anh Do ID number: 18809104 Length: 2000 words Due : 2pm Tuesday April 30

On a global scale, the tourism industry has been experiencing steady growth over the year. Due to our increased busy and stressful lifestyle, people are encourage to travel abroad in order to escape from their usual condition and recover from the exhaustion of their daily routine. However, for countries with no natural landscape, the government has resort to event tourism as an alternative method of attracting visitors. Hallmark event is a type of event that has received some special connections to the tourist destination where the event takes place. There is an argument that hallmark event, with its connection with the traditional values of the hosting destination, will bring competitive advantages to the destination over time through brand image association. In this essay, the hallmark event Wimbledon tennis tournament will be analyzed to evaluate its role on building a positive brand image and creating a competitive advantage for the local destination hosting the event. The definition of a hallmark event is “Major one-time or recurring events of limited duration, developed primarily to enhance the awareness, appeal and profitability of a tourism destination in the short and/or long term..” (Hall 1989). From this definition, it can be seen that hallmark events are developed by the destination, connected to that particular destination, and might reoccur multiple times. A hallmark event has the ability to attract a significant number of tourists to its local destination due to its uniqueness, creating a competitive advantage for the destination. For example, Wimbledon has become a major sports event that is attended by tourists, mainly fueled by the attractiveness of the sports as well as the participation of famous tennis stars coming from all parts of the world (Lake 2018). In addition, Hallmark events are usually developed in association with the local destination that it resides. For example, the Wimbledon tennis tournament is named after the district in south west of London. Therefore, there is a close connection between the local destination and the event itself, making it easier to form an association between the destination and the event. In contrast to hallmark events are mega events, which are super-large events that attract a remarkable number of tourists on a global scale. In addition, mega events are not bound to local destinations. Instead, countries must participate in a bid to win the rights to host mega events, with huge financial resources required for hosting. Consequently, mega events bear no distinctive

attributes and brand image to the local destination, as they have different hosting destinations each time. It might be argued that hallmarks event such as the Wimbledon might not attract as much attention from spectators and the media such as a mega event like the Olympic Games (Hall 1989). However, the consistency in the hosting of the hallmark event provides more branding benefit over time for the destination compared to mega events. After the mega event has ended, it is usually the case that visit to the destination that hosted this event will drop significantly. Furthermore, since the mega event will likely not be hosted again in the destination for a long time, customers who visited the destination will have no reason to come back to the destination. The lack of repeat exposure to the mega event in a consistent local destination leads to memory decay and eliminate the positive experience that tourists have in the local destination (Kaplanidou & Vogt 2007). In addition, customers are exposed to the mega event and the destination only once, which makes it difficult for them to establish an association between the two. As a consequence, mega event remains the main attraction to tourists instead of the destination, and offer no competitive advantage for the hosting destination over time. Meanwhile, it is more likely for customers to revisit the destination hosting a hallmark events multiple times as they are hosted more regularly. Consequently, customers have more opportunity to gain exposure to the local destination that hosts the hallmark event. In developing a brand, it is important for communication messages about the brand to be repeated multiple time to customers in order to increase customer retention about the message. Furthermore, as tourists visit the events more frequently, they become more familiar with the destination and build their trust in the brand association (Priluck Grossman 1997). Consequently, over time, the attributes of the hallmark events will be associated with the local destination, which means the destination will have the same brand image as the event itself (Priluck Grossman 1997). For example, the Wimbledon is well-known for promoting its British values, with specific rules on fashion and dress code, the tennis court, the appearance of royal members, strawberries, etc (Lake 2018). Although some of these are invented traditions, they still contribute to building a royal and traditional British image for the local community (Lake 2018). In addition to the regularity of hallmark events, which help to increase the frequency and likelihood for tourists to revisit and get exposed to the branding and communication activities of the local destination and memorization of the association, there are other factors that might affect the level of exposure of tourists to the hallmark events and the formation of the association between the brand image of the destination and the event. Indeed, it has been found that the past experience and satisfaction with the event will have an influence on the intention to revisit the destination, which increases the frequency of revisit (Kaplanidou & Vogt 2007). However, regularity is not solely responsible for the association between the brand image of the event into the brand of the local destination. Instead, in order to develop a positive brand image for the destination, it is necessary to provide customer with a consistent branding experience through both hallmark events and the rest of the tourism experience (Kaplanidou & Vogt 2007). The brand image of the destination communicated to customers is influenced by the advertising activities of the host organization. Aside from the attending the hallmark event, customers have the time to spend on other activities in the local destination, which means local residents also play part in forming the brand image of the local destination.

Besides the fact that hallmark events are not fully responsible for building the brand for the local destination, it is also notable that the impact of hallmark event as a creator of competitive advantages might not be as strong as it used to be, due to increased competition. The global tourism industry is still growing in value, and as more countries try to profit from the global tourism market, nations have been trying to copy one another in creating hallmark events to attract tourists. This is especially true for sports events, which have become an attractive method to create tourist attraction for local destinations (Kaplanidou & Vogt 2007). In the case of Wimbledon, the viewership of the tournament has been on the decline year over year. This decline might be due to competition from other sports events. In addition, the regularity and repetition of the hallmark event itself might be a disadvantage in itself, as it might become boring for spectators to watch the same event again multiple times, while one of the most important motivations of tourists when travelling is escapism and exploration, which means they want to look for new things and experiences. This is particularly possible for sports events, with newer forms of sports appearing and competing for the attention of spectators and encourage them to visit the destination. Consequently, over time, a hallmark event might be outcompeted by newer hallmark events in other destinations. These hallmark events, with more freshness than the old hallmark even, draw attention away from the destination and take away the competitive advantage of the destination. For Wimbledon, this is a potential problem, as interest in the tennis tournament is reduced year by year. Meanwhile, currently, Wimbledon is only known for its tennis championship it has no other events in the local community that is attractive enough to draw tourists to the region. There is also no additional events that complement the tourism experience for visitors at the destination. Consequently, this heavy reliance on the Wimbledon championship might lead to a loss of competitiveness in the future, especially considering that the Wimbledon district has been shadowed by the tennis championship itself that no one knows anything else about the destination besides tennis. In response to increased competitions, local destinations are deliberately creating new hallmark events as an attempt to stay competitive and fresh over other destinations. Hallmark events might form organically from local events with little management intervention. However, as more events are deliberately created within the region, there is increased risk to the brand image of the destination. While organic hallmark events are supported by the local community and contains the traditional values of the community, artificially created events might not possess the unique attributes that are relevant to the destination. Indeed, there are different strategies to create hallmark events at a destination, which might reinforce, reimagine, or reinvent the image of the local destination. This means that there might be newly created events that bear no relations to the traditional values of the destination. Although the strategies to reimagine or reinvent the destination through events might create new interests for tourists and create new competitive advantage for the destination in the short run, the new events might promote different images about the local destination compared with the existing event, leading to a conflicting brand image for the destination. Consequently, the brand image of the destination is diluted in the long run. Instead of promoting multiple events in an isolated manner, DMOs should approach these events with a holistic view. Similar to the regularity of the hallmark events which helps to increase retention and reinforce the brand image association with local destinations, there is also the need to reinforce the experience of tourists while they are at the destination through the complementary events. Indeed, local destinations might create a consistent brand for tourists by offering a holistic event portfolio that create synergies between multiple hallmark events (Ziakas 2010). In particular, the use of the same messages, meanings, symbols, and themes can help to communicate a sense of

conceptual consistency and connectivity to tourists, helping them to form a unifying theme about the local lifestyle (Ziakas 2010). In addition, the coordinated effort between multiple event organizers encourage them to share their knowledge and resources, and develop joint and complementary strategies to build a host community image and local identity that is consistent and reinforcing the one another (Ziakas 2010). When customers visit an event, they should not look for the event itself, but the entertainment, cultural values and related services provided within the destination (Hall 1989). Therefore, multiple stakeholders are involved in the provision of services and creating the tourism experience. Consequently, the development and planning of hallmark events must take into the interest and impact of these stakeholders in order to prevent a conflict of interest between the event and other stakeholders and maximize value for the community (Hall 1989; Ziakas 2010). For example, due to the large number of visitors to Wimbledon, there is pressure on traffic infrastructure of the district, and local residents might not like the inconvenience caused by the surge in visitors. On the other hand, the increase business opportunities for residents through providing rent and retailing services are huge that the overall impact of the event on the local economy is positive.

In conclusion, hallmark events are becoming an increasingly important tool for local destinations to raise awareness and attract tourists by promoting unique values of the local residence. Wimbledon, as the oldest tennis tournament in the world, is a typical example of a hallmark event. The regularity in the hosting and organization of the event in the local destination allows repetition of communication messages to tourists, which helps to increase the memorability of the brand attributes of the event and facilitate an association between the image of the event and the destination. However, as other countries and regions also join the tourism scene and create their own hallmark events, thereby offering more freshness and uniqueness to tourists, it is no longer safe to rely on a single hallmark event as Wimbledon to maintain competitive advantages for the destination. Instead, DMOs should offer an event portfolio that leverage and synergies on one another, delivering a consistent brand image that communicates the value of the destination.

Reference Hall, CM 1989, 'The definition and analysis of hallmark tourist events', GeoJournal, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 263–268. Kaplanidou, K & Vogt, C 2007, 'The Interrelationship between Sport Event and Destination Image and Sport Tourists’ Behaviours', Journal of Sport & Tourism, vol. 12, no. 3–4, pp. 183–206. Lake, RJ 2018, 'The Wimbledon Championships, the All England Lawn Tennis Club, and “Invented Traditions”', International Journal of Sport Communication, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 52–74. Priluck Grossman, R 1997, 'Co-branding in advertising: developing effective associations', Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 191–201. Ziakas, V 2010, 'Understanding an event portfolio: the uncovering of interrelationships, synergies, and leveraging opportunities', Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 144–164....