Event Management Assignment: How National Games Impacts Event Tourism in Hong Kong

Question

Task: Background
The State Council recently has agreed for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau to host the 15th National Games in 2025. The Home affairs chief has commented that Hong Kong will benefit in many ways by hosting such a major sports event.

YourTask

• Research on Hong Kong’s tourism data and its trend towards 2025.
• Use facts and examples to illustrate the importance of hosting the National Games in terms of event tourism to Hong Kong.
• Identify the key challenges to Hong Kong if the National Games is held locally.
• Discuss how event tourism will be shaped in the future of Hong Kong if more large scale, major events such as the National Games, is happening in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.

Answer

Tourism in Hong Kong
As per the decision of the State Council, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau will be hosting the 15th National Games to be held in the year 2025. The comments of the Home Affairs Chief suggest that Hong Kong would be highly benefitted by hosting such a significant sports event.

Hong Kong has a population of around 7.9 million people who have per capita GDP of 37777.26 US dollars. The city creates scope for growing tourism business. As a tourism hub, Hong Kong has attained the 13th rank out of 141 nations in terms of the Travel and Tourism Index of Competitiveness. Hong Kong is mainly strong in business tourism. The hosting of National Games 2025 will have several economic and social impacts, shaping the future tourism of the region (Chu, 2021). The below given Mordor Intelligence provides an idea of the tourism trend in Hong Kong.

(Source: Chu, 2021)

Importance of hosting the National Games in terms of event tourism to Hong Kong
Economic Importance
Hong Kong can economically benefit from hosting the National Games in 2025. Therefore, this hosting is an important event for the region. The region will experience a positive economic effect. This significant sports event will boost the economic activities across Hong Kong. The economic activities will increase due to the increasing expenditure on games and related activities. The host region will also open new job opportunities based on games and event management (Maguire &Hanrahan, 2017). The sports infrastructure and facilities will improve for the host region. The hosting of this sports event will result in urban revival. The international profile of Hong Kong as a city will improve for being chosen as the host city. This hosting of the National Games, 2025 will help Hong Kong to enhance its convention or tourism businesses, leading to higher inward investment. The economy of England was boosted by the hosting of London Summer Olympics in 2012, PyeongChang hosted the 2018 Winter Games which economically benefitted the region, the Summer Olympics in 1984 boosted the economic condition of in Los Angeles, the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games brought thousands of global audience and huge revenue to the region. Thus, there are several examples which show that economy of a region is highly benefitted through sports tourism (Ferreira et al, 2018).

Social Importance
Keychallengesof hostingNational Games
Hosting the National Games 2025 will not be an easy job for Hong Kong. While hosting this sports event locally, Hong Kong will have to face certain challenges and negative impacts. The city will have to spend on improving the links of transportation across the city. The region has to ensure complete political stability and security from any attack. The host city is always vulnerable to terrorist attacks, which target such gatherings. Thus, this is a matter of national threat (Rookwood, 2019). The sports organizations which would organize the event are subject to criticism. Moreover, there are certain negative economic effects of hosting the National Games. It could lead to tourism diversion. There could also be chances of import leakage issue in the economy of Hong Kong. As per Liu (2019), the inflationary pressure, the impact of expenditure switching, underutilisation of infrastructure related to games, etc. could be the other negative impacts which could offset the positive impacts of hosting the National Games in 2025. The other challenges include the cost or expenditure involved in renovating stadiums, suffering of local business because of the important national advertisers, etc.

Hosting National Games shapes Tourism
The tourism of the region will be enhanced due to the hosting of such a vital sports event like National Games. The National Games, 2025 to be held in Hong Kong will enhance the valuable tourism. This could have a trickledown effect, boosting the local economic scenario. The inflow of visitors from different cities, and also nations, will increase the revenue earned by the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The host city here is Hong Kong, therefore, the global stature and trade of the region will improve after hosting the national sports event. Hong Kong will be invited post the event to prestigious economic events and forums. For Hong Kong, it is a matter of pride to host the National Games 2025. The tourism will be enriched by this sports event. First, there will be many sports tourists coming into the region. The spending of these tourists will boost business. These tourists will travel and boost the revenue of the sector (Chen & Shih, 2019). These people putting up at hotels will increase the business of hotels. They will also take trips around the city after the event, which will boost the tourism across the city. The Greater Bay area comprises Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao. This region has two administrative regions including Macao and Hong Kong. The entire region is likely to develop due to the hosting of this National Games in 2025. The people from different regions will visit the Greater Bay area to watch the National Games, which could boost the tourism of the region.

Conclusion
Hong Kong co-hosting the National Games 2025 along with Guangdong, Macao is a great economic and social opportunity for the city to enhance its tourism, sports development and economy. Hong Kong has already proved its potential at sports in Tokyo Olympics 2020. The hosting of the National Games will boost the sports sector of Hong Kong, opening new gateway of opportunities. The three cities hosting the sports event will create a bay region for sports, health and leisure. The cities need to manage the event budget by fully utilizing the existing facilities and venues. They should also implement strict Covid rules for controlling the spread of the pandemic.

References
Chen, S., & Shih, E. (2019). City branding through cinema: the case of postcolonial Hong Kong. Journal of Brand Management, 26(5), 505-521.

Chu, M. P. (2021). Leveraging Sporting Events for Firefighters, Police Officers, and Soldiers.In Sporting Events in China as Economic Development, National Image, and Political Ambition (pp. 123-141). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Ferreira, L. B., de ArrudaLourenção, M. T., Giraldi, J. D. M. E., & De Oliveira, J. H. C. (2018). Economic and image impacts of Summer Olympic Games in tourist destinations: a review of the literature.Event management assignment Tourism & Management Studies, 14(3), 52-63.

Liu, K. (2019). China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area: A Primer. The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 37(1), 36-56.

Maguire, K., &Hanrahan, J. (2017).Assessing the economic impact of event management in Ireland: A local authority planning perspective. Event management, 21(3), 333-346.

Rookwood, J. (2019). Access, security and diplomacy: Perceptions of soft power, nation branding and the organisational challenges facing Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal.