Events Industry and Event Tourism (Research Paper Sample)

Events Industry and Event Tourism Name Class Affiliation Instructor Date Introduction An event is an occasion, an assembly, ceremony, gathering or a special occasion, where people meet. The field of event management includes the application of project management skills to plan, organise, execute and control of the occurrences of an event. This has currently grown in to a large industry, enabling the growth of the economy. Events such as Olympics, political functions, and other games are among major tourism attractions. According to Damster (2005, p. 1), the event management industry is among the largest employers, making a positive contribution to the economy. The history of event management Robinson, Wale & Dickson (2010, p. 1) state that the history of event management goes back to the early history times, when people used to gather celebrations, worship and games among other events. As societies started creating towns, events became common during the planning process. The planning of Roman cities was done to include amphitheatres and arenas for events and shows, market place for commerce and shrines for worship (Robinson, Wale & Dickson 2010, p. 1). By 12th century, events became famous with annual events such as Lord Mayor’s Show. During the 18th and 19th century, industrial revolution resulted in the need to organise world trade fairs and exhibitions (Robinson, Wale & Dickson 2010, p. 1). These events became common and used to attract people from different geographical locations, leading to tourism and the rise of the hotel industry. By the year 1970s, the development of event venues created a new dimension to event management. The new event venues were now able to accommodate people in a large scale (Robinson, Wale & Dickson 2010, p. 1). The construction of stadiums and cinema halls enabled the hosting of large events. Currently, event management has become more complicated and demanding for the managers. The current event management industry is characterised with creativity, and innovativeness, which has led to extreme use of technology to organise impressive events. In the future, there is expectation that use of technology will drive event management to a higher level of organising and controlling virtual events. The Events industry’s place and importance in today’s Society In the past people would organise their own simple events such as religious gatherings, which did not require much planning and budgeting. Currently, with the economic development and people being too busy to organise their own events, event planning has become one of the highly successful professions (Ellen 2011, par. 1). Managers and event organisers take up all the responsibility of ensuring that an event happens. These include the selection of event dates, selecting the decorations and theme colours, setting up the stage, budget creation, advertisement and even organising for catering services. Event management has taken a centre stage in the society, creating convenience, employment and enabling economic growth. Due to the increase in the demand of event management, it has recently become a highly successful profession, providing high rates of employment (Ellen 2011, par. 2). This has created financial freedom for those working in the industry, while at the same time it creates economic growth. With the growth in the event management industries, the welfare of organisations as well as that of individuals has been under constant improvement. The growth in the event management industry has highly been due to the changes that the society has encountered. Among them are the change in economy and the advancement in different technological applications (Ellen 2011, par. 3). Growth in economic status has enabled governments to learn how to appreciate exhibitions and the organisation of large events. Companies have also learnt to use these events to market their products and create more sales. With the growth in demand for event management, many companies have come up to organise fantastic events with the aim of earning the reputation of being the best and establishing a big market share. As a result, the event management industry has become highly competitive, leading to the provision of more value to the customers. Event tourism has been a major reason as to why different countries are willing to organise big events. Countries compete to host major world events, such as Olympics, World Cup and Paralympics, due to the benefit they stand to gain through tourism attractions (Pfister & Tierney 2009, p. 6). Organising these events for a nation means that people will come from other nations to take part and others to enjoy. This translates to direct growth in the hotel industry, as the guests require accommodation, food industry and entertainment industry among others, which leads to a substantial growth in the economy. Event managers have experienced high expectations from people, who need their events to be successful and retain relevance. According to Ellen (2011, par. 3), event management demands high level of qualification for individuals that work in the industry. This is because they need to plan, budget, organise, market, control and ensure the event is relevant to the customer’s needs and that the customers are in a position to obtain a return on investment injected towards the event organising. Types of events Cultural events Festivals are the most popular forms of celebrating cultural events. Cultural events such as heritage events are characterized by historical themes, and celebrate the cultural heritage of a community (Damster & Tassiopoulos 2005, p. 13). Heritage events bring people together by interpreting community life, which increase appreciation and knowledge of the traditions. According to Damster, arts, entertainment, and recreation events are crucial festival elements, hence they fall under the category of cultural events (Damster & Tassiopoulos 2005, p.14). Business events Trade fairs, conferences, and business meetings are examples of business events. Trade fairs are an exhibition of business productivity, and mainly target specific industries and professions. Trade and consumer shows are meant to increase public awareness (Damster & Tassiopoulos 2005, p. 14). Sports events In the contemporary world, sports events are more competitive and organized, and sports events is a popular and big business (Damster & Tassiopoulos 2005, p. 15). Global sports events attract many people from across the globe, and require effective event management, in order to ensure coordination and overall success of the events. Most of the people who are unable to attend the events physically, watch them from the internet and television, and are able to follow the live events due to technology advancement. The organisers ensure that the audience receive the proceedings of the events, since not every willing person is able to attend the events. This can be due to financial constraints, time, and other factors that hinder physically appearance of a person in the event (Pearlman & Gates 2010, p. 254). The future trends of events industry In future, the business events industry will adopt virtual worlds for special events and business meetings (Pearlman & Gates 2010, p.250). Events planners will accept and adopt virtual ways of conducting special events and meetings. The audience who attend business meeting are becoming increasingly familiar with online technologies, and virtual technology is maturing. The accessibility of higher bandwidth, and the probability of decrease in event attendance due to increased travel costs and on the budget, will encourage the use of virtual events (Pearlman & Gates 2010, p. 254). Virtual attendance will reduce prejudice since the attendants cannot be seen physically, as in some cases physically meeting cause discrimination on gender, race, age, appearance, and physical appearance, which hinders interactions. Virtual meeting presents an opportunity to cut costs and permits rapid responses (Pearlman & Gates 2010, p. 249). In future, most of the events planners will be forced to improve technological potential, reduce ...