Description
The purpose of this paper is to identify the management principles of environmental
sustainability for event tourism
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Adding environmental sustainability to the management of event tourism
Yulan Y. Yuan
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Yulan Y. Yuan, (2013),"Adding environmental sustainability to the management of event tourism", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism
and Hospitality Research, Vol. 7 Iss 2 pp. 175 - 183
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Stephen Henderson, (2011),"The development of competitive advantage through sustainable event management", Worldwide Hospitality
and Tourism Themes, Vol. 3 Iss 3 pp. 245-257http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17554211111142202
J ames Musgrave, (2011),"Moving towards responsible events management", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 3 Iss 3 pp.
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Adding environmental sustainability to the
management of event tourism
Yulan Y. Yuan
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the management principles of environmental
sustainability for event tourism.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a meta-synthesis approach to review and to
analyze collected papers in this subject.
Findings – To manage environmental sustainability in the context of event tourism is to minimize the
negative impacts on critical natural capital. The environmental sustainability consists of these three
interconnected components: the event organization, a place to host the event and the host community,
and event-goers. One should follow three management principles in attempting to add environmental
sustainability to the management. First, sustainable event management requires careful planning prior
to events. Second, taking responsibility in event management is crucial in achieving sustainability. Third,
offering information and education to raise the awareness of event goers is the key to putting
sustainability into practice.
Originality/value – A limited number of papers speci?cally address the importance of environmental
sustainability in the management of event tourismand what their management principles should be. This
paper brings together, integrates and synthesizes the different studies. Event organizers and
practitioners can have a better understanding of environmental management in the context of event
tourism and follow the three managerial principles to build a truly sustainable event.
Keywords Tourism management, Forward planning, Responsibilities, Event tourism,
Environmental sustainability, Event management
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
The growing number of planned events is a global phenomenon (Goldblatt, 2000; Weber
and Ladkin, 2003). The same is true for event tourism(Getz, 2008). Environment is one of the
central concerns for organizing an event. Events not only serve as tourist attractions, catalyst
for development, and renewal of destinations (Getz, 2008), but also induce massive
environment impacts (Chernushenko, 1994; Puczko´ and Ra´ tz, 2002). The damage of
environmental assets that tourism ultimately depend upon will lead to serious negative
economic impacts (Cater, 1995; Mathieson and Wall, 1992). Policymakers and event
organizers driven by pro?t concerns and societal pressures are increasingly interested in
knowing how to add environmental sustainability to the management of event tourism to
reduce environmental impacts.
The environmental impacts brought by hallmark and mega-events are too substantial to slip
by host communities (Jones, 2001; Collins et al., 2007). The organization and delivery of
events produce a variety of unwanted byproducts, possibly modifying and affecting the
quality of the environment. For example, Chernushenko (1994) in his book Greening Our
Games, used Montreal’s 1976 Summer Olympic Games and 1992 Winter Olympic Games to
exemplify inappropriate and negative impact caused by those ?amboyant events with little
DOI 10.1108/IJCTHR-04-2013-0024 VOL. 7 NO. 2 2013, pp. 175-183, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH
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PAGE 175
Yulan Y. Yuan is based in
the Graduate Institute of
Hospitality & Tourism
Management, Jinwen
University of Science and
Technology, New Taipei
City, Taiwan.
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thought given to post-event legacies by event organizers. Those impacts included the
creation of hazards for residents, increased air pollution and waste, ecosystem destruction,
and land erosion. Many smaller events have been just as neglectful of environmental quality
and ecological sustainability as mega-events. Therefore, one should carefully manages
environmental sustainability of event tourism, and addresses their environmental impacts.
Environmental sustainability of event tourism generally addresses the reduction and monitor
of environmental impacts of event organization and delivery, the impacts of events on
community, and the behaviors of event goers (Getz, 2005; Ritchie, 1984; Smith-Christensen,
2009). It is a multi-dimensional concept containing natural capital, biodiversity, and the value
of natural objects at all levels including international, national, regional, and community
(Dobson, 2003). Therefore, the question to be addressed is: How can these complex
dimensions of environmental sustainability be incorporated within an event tourism
management framework for minimizing the impacts of planned events?
This paper is structured as follows. The next section delineates the characteristics of event
tourism and explains the concept of environmental sustainability. A review of the negative
environmental impacts possibly caused by events was provided. The third section explains
the translation of this concept into management principles and how to add each principle
into the operation of event tourism.
Event tourism
Events were de?ned by (Getz, 1998; 2005) from a management and planning perspective.
The concept involves three major aspects:
1. Destinations: the systematic planning, development, and marketing of events as tourist
attractions, catalysts for other development, image builders, and animators of attractions
and destination areas.
2. Organizers and Sponsors: event tourism strategies should also cover the management of
news and negative events.
3. Event-goers: a market segment consisting of those people who travel to and attend
events.
Event tourism is at the nexus of tourism and planned event. Thus, it has joined
characteristics from both ?elds. Planned events are purposeful human creations and
generally characterized for their ‘‘non-routing’’ and ‘‘uniqueness’’ (Shone and Parry, 2004).
Event tourism is often de?ned as ‘‘major one-time or recurring events of limited duration,
developed primarily to enhance the awareness, appeal and pro?tability of a tourism
destination in the short or long term’’ (Ritchie, 1984, p. 2). Clearly, event tourismserves as an
instrument in facilitating community-building, fostering urban renewal, and spurring tourism
development to provide a better quality of life and environment.
Environmental resources provide basic ingredients for the construction of the infrastructure
and production of the tourist product for the host community and the event goers. Event
goers act like tourists, participate in events, and gain experience that differs from ‘‘normal
day of living’’ (Goldblatt, 2008, p. 2); they pursue leisure, social, or cultural purposes (Getz,
1998) with high expectations on the quality of environment. In other words, the quality of
environment is the key to provide satisfaction of tourists’ needs and wants; the economic
success is dependent upon it. As Mieczkowski (1995, p. 114) comments: ‘‘The very
existence of tourism is unthinkable without a healthy and pleasant environment, with well
preserved landscapes and harmony between people and nature.’’ Government bodies
often used Event tourism is as a national and regional development tool to allocate more
budget in constructing infrastructures, and to promote the destination for attracting more
tourists. Stressing environment as the essential cornerstone in tourism, Cater (1995) stated
‘‘unless the environment is safe-guarded, tourism is in danger of being a self-destructive
process, destroying the very resources upon which it is based’’ (Cater, 1995, p. 22).
Maintaining the quality of environment is essential in sustaining the attractiveness and
capability of a destination to host future events.
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Environmental sustainability
The concept of sustainability gained its recognition at the 1980 World Conservation Strategy
(WCED, 1987; Keating, 1993) to address the conservation and degradation of environment
caused by growth-driven value. Later, Brundtland Report’s ‘‘Our Common Future’’
introduced the term ‘‘sustainable development’’ and de?ned sustainability as living within
the ?nite limits of the earth ‘‘to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without
compromising the ability to meet those of the future.’’ Sustainability is about making decision
and choice to mitigate the negative consequences and impacts of human actions, and then
taking actions toward using limited resources wisely in a just and equitable manner for both
present and future generation.
In 1992, the Earth Summit held in Rio expanded the scope of environmental issues from
concerningconservation to incorporate protection of wildlife habitat and environmental quality,
and to renew, recycle and reuse energy and resources. Sustainable development describes a
situation when ‘‘all human activities are practiced so that the society and its members are able
to meet their needs and wants, while preserving environmental and socio-cultural systems
inde?nitely’’ (Higham, 2007, p. 35). Sustaining such a state is a dynamic process
(Smith-Christensen, 2009) and cannot be achieved through the economic growth.
The event tourism and economy could not possibly keep growing with limited resources and
carry capacity on the Earth. Scottish National Heritage (1993, p. 9) explained the difference
between ‘‘growth’’ and ‘‘development’’: ‘‘To grow means to increase in size by the
assimilation or accretion of materials. To develop means to expand or realize the
potentialities of: to bring a fuller, greater, or better state. When something grows, it gets
quantitatively bigger; when it develops, it gets qualitatively better, or at least different.’’ It
implies wise use of environmental resources and rejecting blind pursuit of unquali?ed
growth; the latter is the driving force behind most environmental destruction (Capra, 1991).
In other words, unless the environment is safeguarded, event tourism puts itself in a
destructive process. Such de?nition re?ects a realization that the viability of event tourism
lies on the quality of natural resources. Therefore, the most important question for
environmental sustainability is: ‘‘what is to be sustained?’’
The answers become apparent from the ever-expanding literature on examining
environmental sustainability of event management (Ritchie, 1984; Chernushenko, 1994;
Raj and Musgrave, 2009). We need to sustain the critical natural capital (Dobson, 2003).
Critical natural capital is also called ecological capital; it is directly related to the raw
materials that become food, fuels, metals, timber, etc. Those materials have four functions:
the provision of resources for production; the absorption of wastes from production; the
provision of basic context and condition for supporting life; and the aesthetic quality of those
materials (Ekins et al., 2003). Activities involved in event tourism can certainly affect the
critical natural capital and the functions produced by it.
The environmental impacts of event tourism
One can view environmental sustainability in event management through the concerns
related to environmental impacts, and category environmental impacts on three criteria:
resources, residual, and consumption/production at different temporal and spatial scale
(Briassoulis, 2000). This mainly re?ects three types of concern:
1. resource usage;
2. waste and pollution; and
3. behavioral considerations (see Table I).
The concerns of resource usage imply resource impacts. The resources impacts concern
depletion and competition for natural resources between other forms of development and
human activity. The forms of natural resource include physical materials, space,
energy/power, and water, as well as any living life forms. For example, Japanese highly
prize blue?n tuna is for making sushi. Those are also major ?shing stocks for many countries.
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Tung Kang, a small village located in southern Taiwan, hosts the Blue?sh Culture & Tourism
Festival (BCTF) annually to celebrate the ?shing culture. Local government uses this event
as marketing strategy to attract more visitors in the hope of securing villagers’ incomes to
support their lives. However, over?shing and poor international regulation has led to the
addition of Blue?n tuna to the seafood red list of Greenpeace International in 2010 (Black,
2010). Thus, the decreasing amount of harvest of blue?n confront villagers of Tung Kang.
The public also criticized the villagers on whether they should keep hosting the BCTF.
Space is also a type of resource and often ignored by the rush to build even-required
facilities within limited time. For example, the uncontrolled overcrowding of facilities (Ritchie,
1984) might have a negative effect on the aesthetic quality of urban environment. Another
example is the legacy of the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. The Winter
Game built a lot more infrastructure than originally planned (Chernushenko, 1994). Kearins
and Pavlovich pointed out the nature of hallmark events, such as Olympic Games, are
inherently unsustainable because the duration of event is short but the event has long lasting
impact (Kearins and Pavlovich, 2002). Many hallmark events share a common legacy of
huge debt and a good deal of underutilized infrastructure (Toohey and Veal, 2000).
The use of natural resources subsequently leads to the transformation of ecological habitats,
loss of ?ora and fauna, and ecosystem destruction. These type of impacts referred as
residual impacts are related to pollution and environmental degradation of resources and
receptors. A range of different types of pollution can result from event tourism. These can
impact on different spatial scales from local to global, including water, air (Go¨ ssling, 2000),
aesthetic, and noise (Dunstan, 1986). A number of recent publications (Go¨ ssling, 2000;
Go¨ ssling et al., 2002) speci?cally pointed out that transport (particularly air traf?c) is
responsible for the majority of the environmental impacts associated with long-distance
tourism due to the greenhouse gas emission (Go¨ ssling, 2000). Other examples of the
pollution are sewage and emission. Sewage discharges into sea or river from hotel
development may lead to the contamination of ?sh stocks. Extra air and car traf?c at airports
could lead to increased emissions of greenhouse gas and toxic particles.
Green operation: adding environmental sustainability in event management
Management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and
objectives ef?ciently and effectively. Such acts involve planning, organizing, implementing,
and controlling. For an event to be managed in tourism context, acts must involve people to
accomplish predetermined goals and objectives in a place (Raj and Musgrave, 2009). As
illustrated in Figure 1, the management of event tourism consists of three interconnected
components: the event organization; a place to host the event and host community; and
event-goers (Smith-Christensen, 2009). Smith-Christensen further emphasized that to fully
incorporate environmental sustainability, every member involved in an event has to take
his/her share of responsibility. As any other form of management, it is a goal-driven process
and the capability of controlling people and place. Hence, one can refer the management of
environmental sustainability in event management as the capacity to act for long-term
maintenance of wellbeing in a responsible manner. It requires all acts of stakeholders and
Table I Classi?cation of negative environmental impacts of event tourism by the type of
concerns
Type of concerns Impacts
Resource usage Resources depletion and competition of physical materials and space,
energy/power, and water
Waste, and pollution Ecosystem destruction, air quality, noise, aesthetic, water pollution,
?ora and fauna, waste
Behavioral consideration Purchase and procurement: food/meals, accommodation, transport
that human activities produce litter, waste and emission
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members of host communities to organize and plan events collaboratively in order to
accomplish sustainable development and ef?ciently and effectively reduce the event’s
negative impact on the environment (Smith-Christensen, 2009).
Given the de?nition of environmental sustainability and the characteristics of event tourism
management, several key principles emerge to guide the incorporation of environmental
sustainability in event management.
Sustainable event management is complex and a managerial challenge that requires
carefully planning prior to the events
Event management is a multi-layer process involving interactions of various stakeholders
who have different motivations, interests, and perspectives in the process. Given the
dynamics and complexity of event tourism, and to be successful in incorporating
sustainability into its management, one should take a multi-stage approach. Marquardt et al.
(2007) identi?ed four stages involved in the process of planning and managing an event:
1. concept phase;
2. implementation phase;
3. during the event; and
4. post event.
Though it is crucial to integrate environmental sustainability into all stages of events, we
should not ignore the importance of concept phase. This phase encompasses establishing
a feasible commitment, identifying stakeholders, assessing environmental issues, and
determining the scope of event. Also, organizers build all the guiding principles and
operation strategies during this phase. This phase is the credo of sustainability for setting
goals and operational guidelines (de Bruyn, 2003). However, most evens are often speedy
through the concept phase due to the limitation and pressure of time (Hall, 1987). Hence,
environmental impact often receives little consideration. As a result, this common practice
heightens the risk of detrimental environmental impacts. For example, International Olympic
Committee (IOC) acknowledges the environment as its third pillar of Olympism. Yet
Demetres Karavvellas, the Chief Executive Of?cer of WWF-Greece, reported that Athens
Olympic Games caused irreversible environmental damage (Nantsou, 2004). His report
revealed that without a well thought-out environmental plan and management strategy, the
results of the Athens Games failed to meet the Bid Book’s promise of being sensitive to the
environment in all stages of development and operation. Seeing from those examples, one
Figure 1 Sustainable events
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can easily see that managers and organizers are the key personnel to initiate the planning
process and they must be proactive to put environmental sustainability as the priority of
event management.
Responsible stakeholders in event management is crucial in achieving environmental
sustainability
The maintenance of a qualitatively better event calls for collaboration of every member living
in the very same environmental-social system. Clearly, it is impossible to ful?ll all the
environmental guiding principles without full support of all stakeholders and community
members. However, the management of event tourism is goal-driven and value-based
(Getz, 2005). Stakeholders involved have diverse values, interests, and needs that likely
lead them to have different aims and concerns (Kearins and Pavlovich, 2002). Stakeholders
with different values and attitudes may prioritize the economic gain while having no concern
for the environment; this can lead to a range of negative consequences. In addition, some of
the stakeholders may hold sel?sh attitudes and jeopardize the achievement of event goals.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means that organizations take responsibility to
produce an event with concern for the consequences of events, including environmental
issues (Smith-Christensen, 2009). One can never achieve the promise of the environmental
sustainability goals unless corporate bodies take responsibility to society in general, as well
as to their shareholders (Kalisch, 2002). Not surprisingly, researchers pointed out that CSR is
a key factor in determining the success of achieving a sustainable event (Kearins and
Pavlovich, 2002; Raj and Musgrave, 2009). Stakeholder involvement is critical to the process
of incorporating sustainability into the management of event tourism. The divergent voices
and interests existing among stakeholders require considerable time for negotiation and
learning. The goal is to properly incorporate the principles of ecological sustainable concept
and environmental guidelines into operation, design and construction. The effort of getting
people to be involved should start as early as possible.
Offering information and education to raise the awareness of event goers is the key to putting
the sustainability into practice
Although people report that they care about the environment and are willing to purchase
green products, they have minimal knowledge about what real green products are and how
they should behaves in accordance with the environmental sustainability principles. The
involvement and devotion of all event-goers also affect the success or failure of sustainable
event management efforts. There is a need for event managers to provide information to
visitors, local residents, and stakeholders about the planning and conservation of the
destination resources. In addition, organizers should provide education information about
appropriate behavior when attending an event.
According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 1994), quality tourism requires
delivering good value for money, protecting tourism resources, and attracting ‘‘the kinds of
tourists who will respect the local environment and society’’ (p. 8). Not only event
organizations need to behave ethically, event-goers need to recognize their duties towards
the environment, host communities, and each other. An event is an information channel to
promote and spread the message of environmental sustainability. Organizers should take
two actions during the delivery of an event. One is engaging visitors and the wider public;
the other is to promote the initiatives (Marquardt et al., 2007).
First, during an event delivery, the event organizers need to make sure that all necessary
signage and information is properly designed and placed on site (Laing and Frost, 2010).
Organizers must inform of?cials, volunteers, and visitors about the initiatives, their roles, and
their expected contributions to the initiatives. Second, organizers should continue
communication of the various environmental sustainability activities during the event. That
way all spectators, including international visitors, come to understand, accept, and
embrace the individual initiatives. This is essential to ensure maximum public support and
take-up, for example in use of the public transport systems made available (Marquardt et al.,
2007).
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Conclusion
The growing awareness of the importance of delivering and hosting environmentally
sustainable events is becoming the standard in event planning worldwide. This paper
reviews he concept of environmental sustainability and explains generic principles for
adding environmental sustainability to event management. However, event tourism is the
sum of phenomena and the web of relationships of various industries ranging from
transportation to hospitalities and attractions. Diverse voices and interests exist. Organizers
cannot simply assume that the needs, interests, and environmental knowledge of
stakeholders and members of the host community, as well as tourists, are homogeneous.
Efforts of incorporating environmental sustainability principles must start early and weave
into each stage of event planning process. Organizers should build strategies and take
actions to initiate the collaboration among stakeholders. In addition, organizers should offer
educational information and activities to further secure the goals of an event and make the
event more in?uential in promoting the concept of environmental sustainability.
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events: two options?’’, Tourism Management, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 828-873.
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pp. 303-314.
About the author
Yulan Y. Yuan is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Institute of Hospitality & Tourism
Management, Jinwen University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Yulan Y. Yuan can be
contacted at: [email protected]
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doc_164263365.pdf
The purpose of this paper is to identify the management principles of environmental
sustainability for event tourism
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Adding environmental sustainability to the management of event tourism
Yulan Y. Yuan
Article information:
To cite this document:
Yulan Y. Yuan, (2013),"Adding environmental sustainability to the management of event tourism", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism
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Adding environmental sustainability to the
management of event tourism
Yulan Y. Yuan
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the management principles of environmental
sustainability for event tourism.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a meta-synthesis approach to review and to
analyze collected papers in this subject.
Findings – To manage environmental sustainability in the context of event tourism is to minimize the
negative impacts on critical natural capital. The environmental sustainability consists of these three
interconnected components: the event organization, a place to host the event and the host community,
and event-goers. One should follow three management principles in attempting to add environmental
sustainability to the management. First, sustainable event management requires careful planning prior
to events. Second, taking responsibility in event management is crucial in achieving sustainability. Third,
offering information and education to raise the awareness of event goers is the key to putting
sustainability into practice.
Originality/value – A limited number of papers speci?cally address the importance of environmental
sustainability in the management of event tourismand what their management principles should be. This
paper brings together, integrates and synthesizes the different studies. Event organizers and
practitioners can have a better understanding of environmental management in the context of event
tourism and follow the three managerial principles to build a truly sustainable event.
Keywords Tourism management, Forward planning, Responsibilities, Event tourism,
Environmental sustainability, Event management
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
The growing number of planned events is a global phenomenon (Goldblatt, 2000; Weber
and Ladkin, 2003). The same is true for event tourism(Getz, 2008). Environment is one of the
central concerns for organizing an event. Events not only serve as tourist attractions, catalyst
for development, and renewal of destinations (Getz, 2008), but also induce massive
environment impacts (Chernushenko, 1994; Puczko´ and Ra´ tz, 2002). The damage of
environmental assets that tourism ultimately depend upon will lead to serious negative
economic impacts (Cater, 1995; Mathieson and Wall, 1992). Policymakers and event
organizers driven by pro?t concerns and societal pressures are increasingly interested in
knowing how to add environmental sustainability to the management of event tourism to
reduce environmental impacts.
The environmental impacts brought by hallmark and mega-events are too substantial to slip
by host communities (Jones, 2001; Collins et al., 2007). The organization and delivery of
events produce a variety of unwanted byproducts, possibly modifying and affecting the
quality of the environment. For example, Chernushenko (1994) in his book Greening Our
Games, used Montreal’s 1976 Summer Olympic Games and 1992 Winter Olympic Games to
exemplify inappropriate and negative impact caused by those ?amboyant events with little
DOI 10.1108/IJCTHR-04-2013-0024 VOL. 7 NO. 2 2013, pp. 175-183, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182
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PAGE 175
Yulan Y. Yuan is based in
the Graduate Institute of
Hospitality & Tourism
Management, Jinwen
University of Science and
Technology, New Taipei
City, Taiwan.
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thought given to post-event legacies by event organizers. Those impacts included the
creation of hazards for residents, increased air pollution and waste, ecosystem destruction,
and land erosion. Many smaller events have been just as neglectful of environmental quality
and ecological sustainability as mega-events. Therefore, one should carefully manages
environmental sustainability of event tourism, and addresses their environmental impacts.
Environmental sustainability of event tourism generally addresses the reduction and monitor
of environmental impacts of event organization and delivery, the impacts of events on
community, and the behaviors of event goers (Getz, 2005; Ritchie, 1984; Smith-Christensen,
2009). It is a multi-dimensional concept containing natural capital, biodiversity, and the value
of natural objects at all levels including international, national, regional, and community
(Dobson, 2003). Therefore, the question to be addressed is: How can these complex
dimensions of environmental sustainability be incorporated within an event tourism
management framework for minimizing the impacts of planned events?
This paper is structured as follows. The next section delineates the characteristics of event
tourism and explains the concept of environmental sustainability. A review of the negative
environmental impacts possibly caused by events was provided. The third section explains
the translation of this concept into management principles and how to add each principle
into the operation of event tourism.
Event tourism
Events were de?ned by (Getz, 1998; 2005) from a management and planning perspective.
The concept involves three major aspects:
1. Destinations: the systematic planning, development, and marketing of events as tourist
attractions, catalysts for other development, image builders, and animators of attractions
and destination areas.
2. Organizers and Sponsors: event tourism strategies should also cover the management of
news and negative events.
3. Event-goers: a market segment consisting of those people who travel to and attend
events.
Event tourism is at the nexus of tourism and planned event. Thus, it has joined
characteristics from both ?elds. Planned events are purposeful human creations and
generally characterized for their ‘‘non-routing’’ and ‘‘uniqueness’’ (Shone and Parry, 2004).
Event tourism is often de?ned as ‘‘major one-time or recurring events of limited duration,
developed primarily to enhance the awareness, appeal and pro?tability of a tourism
destination in the short or long term’’ (Ritchie, 1984, p. 2). Clearly, event tourismserves as an
instrument in facilitating community-building, fostering urban renewal, and spurring tourism
development to provide a better quality of life and environment.
Environmental resources provide basic ingredients for the construction of the infrastructure
and production of the tourist product for the host community and the event goers. Event
goers act like tourists, participate in events, and gain experience that differs from ‘‘normal
day of living’’ (Goldblatt, 2008, p. 2); they pursue leisure, social, or cultural purposes (Getz,
1998) with high expectations on the quality of environment. In other words, the quality of
environment is the key to provide satisfaction of tourists’ needs and wants; the economic
success is dependent upon it. As Mieczkowski (1995, p. 114) comments: ‘‘The very
existence of tourism is unthinkable without a healthy and pleasant environment, with well
preserved landscapes and harmony between people and nature.’’ Government bodies
often used Event tourism is as a national and regional development tool to allocate more
budget in constructing infrastructures, and to promote the destination for attracting more
tourists. Stressing environment as the essential cornerstone in tourism, Cater (1995) stated
‘‘unless the environment is safe-guarded, tourism is in danger of being a self-destructive
process, destroying the very resources upon which it is based’’ (Cater, 1995, p. 22).
Maintaining the quality of environment is essential in sustaining the attractiveness and
capability of a destination to host future events.
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Environmental sustainability
The concept of sustainability gained its recognition at the 1980 World Conservation Strategy
(WCED, 1987; Keating, 1993) to address the conservation and degradation of environment
caused by growth-driven value. Later, Brundtland Report’s ‘‘Our Common Future’’
introduced the term ‘‘sustainable development’’ and de?ned sustainability as living within
the ?nite limits of the earth ‘‘to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without
compromising the ability to meet those of the future.’’ Sustainability is about making decision
and choice to mitigate the negative consequences and impacts of human actions, and then
taking actions toward using limited resources wisely in a just and equitable manner for both
present and future generation.
In 1992, the Earth Summit held in Rio expanded the scope of environmental issues from
concerningconservation to incorporate protection of wildlife habitat and environmental quality,
and to renew, recycle and reuse energy and resources. Sustainable development describes a
situation when ‘‘all human activities are practiced so that the society and its members are able
to meet their needs and wants, while preserving environmental and socio-cultural systems
inde?nitely’’ (Higham, 2007, p. 35). Sustaining such a state is a dynamic process
(Smith-Christensen, 2009) and cannot be achieved through the economic growth.
The event tourism and economy could not possibly keep growing with limited resources and
carry capacity on the Earth. Scottish National Heritage (1993, p. 9) explained the difference
between ‘‘growth’’ and ‘‘development’’: ‘‘To grow means to increase in size by the
assimilation or accretion of materials. To develop means to expand or realize the
potentialities of: to bring a fuller, greater, or better state. When something grows, it gets
quantitatively bigger; when it develops, it gets qualitatively better, or at least different.’’ It
implies wise use of environmental resources and rejecting blind pursuit of unquali?ed
growth; the latter is the driving force behind most environmental destruction (Capra, 1991).
In other words, unless the environment is safeguarded, event tourism puts itself in a
destructive process. Such de?nition re?ects a realization that the viability of event tourism
lies on the quality of natural resources. Therefore, the most important question for
environmental sustainability is: ‘‘what is to be sustained?’’
The answers become apparent from the ever-expanding literature on examining
environmental sustainability of event management (Ritchie, 1984; Chernushenko, 1994;
Raj and Musgrave, 2009). We need to sustain the critical natural capital (Dobson, 2003).
Critical natural capital is also called ecological capital; it is directly related to the raw
materials that become food, fuels, metals, timber, etc. Those materials have four functions:
the provision of resources for production; the absorption of wastes from production; the
provision of basic context and condition for supporting life; and the aesthetic quality of those
materials (Ekins et al., 2003). Activities involved in event tourism can certainly affect the
critical natural capital and the functions produced by it.
The environmental impacts of event tourism
One can view environmental sustainability in event management through the concerns
related to environmental impacts, and category environmental impacts on three criteria:
resources, residual, and consumption/production at different temporal and spatial scale
(Briassoulis, 2000). This mainly re?ects three types of concern:
1. resource usage;
2. waste and pollution; and
3. behavioral considerations (see Table I).
The concerns of resource usage imply resource impacts. The resources impacts concern
depletion and competition for natural resources between other forms of development and
human activity. The forms of natural resource include physical materials, space,
energy/power, and water, as well as any living life forms. For example, Japanese highly
prize blue?n tuna is for making sushi. Those are also major ?shing stocks for many countries.
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Tung Kang, a small village located in southern Taiwan, hosts the Blue?sh Culture & Tourism
Festival (BCTF) annually to celebrate the ?shing culture. Local government uses this event
as marketing strategy to attract more visitors in the hope of securing villagers’ incomes to
support their lives. However, over?shing and poor international regulation has led to the
addition of Blue?n tuna to the seafood red list of Greenpeace International in 2010 (Black,
2010). Thus, the decreasing amount of harvest of blue?n confront villagers of Tung Kang.
The public also criticized the villagers on whether they should keep hosting the BCTF.
Space is also a type of resource and often ignored by the rush to build even-required
facilities within limited time. For example, the uncontrolled overcrowding of facilities (Ritchie,
1984) might have a negative effect on the aesthetic quality of urban environment. Another
example is the legacy of the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. The Winter
Game built a lot more infrastructure than originally planned (Chernushenko, 1994). Kearins
and Pavlovich pointed out the nature of hallmark events, such as Olympic Games, are
inherently unsustainable because the duration of event is short but the event has long lasting
impact (Kearins and Pavlovich, 2002). Many hallmark events share a common legacy of
huge debt and a good deal of underutilized infrastructure (Toohey and Veal, 2000).
The use of natural resources subsequently leads to the transformation of ecological habitats,
loss of ?ora and fauna, and ecosystem destruction. These type of impacts referred as
residual impacts are related to pollution and environmental degradation of resources and
receptors. A range of different types of pollution can result from event tourism. These can
impact on different spatial scales from local to global, including water, air (Go¨ ssling, 2000),
aesthetic, and noise (Dunstan, 1986). A number of recent publications (Go¨ ssling, 2000;
Go¨ ssling et al., 2002) speci?cally pointed out that transport (particularly air traf?c) is
responsible for the majority of the environmental impacts associated with long-distance
tourism due to the greenhouse gas emission (Go¨ ssling, 2000). Other examples of the
pollution are sewage and emission. Sewage discharges into sea or river from hotel
development may lead to the contamination of ?sh stocks. Extra air and car traf?c at airports
could lead to increased emissions of greenhouse gas and toxic particles.
Green operation: adding environmental sustainability in event management
Management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and
objectives ef?ciently and effectively. Such acts involve planning, organizing, implementing,
and controlling. For an event to be managed in tourism context, acts must involve people to
accomplish predetermined goals and objectives in a place (Raj and Musgrave, 2009). As
illustrated in Figure 1, the management of event tourism consists of three interconnected
components: the event organization; a place to host the event and host community; and
event-goers (Smith-Christensen, 2009). Smith-Christensen further emphasized that to fully
incorporate environmental sustainability, every member involved in an event has to take
his/her share of responsibility. As any other form of management, it is a goal-driven process
and the capability of controlling people and place. Hence, one can refer the management of
environmental sustainability in event management as the capacity to act for long-term
maintenance of wellbeing in a responsible manner. It requires all acts of stakeholders and
Table I Classi?cation of negative environmental impacts of event tourism by the type of
concerns
Type of concerns Impacts
Resource usage Resources depletion and competition of physical materials and space,
energy/power, and water
Waste, and pollution Ecosystem destruction, air quality, noise, aesthetic, water pollution,
?ora and fauna, waste
Behavioral consideration Purchase and procurement: food/meals, accommodation, transport
that human activities produce litter, waste and emission
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members of host communities to organize and plan events collaboratively in order to
accomplish sustainable development and ef?ciently and effectively reduce the event’s
negative impact on the environment (Smith-Christensen, 2009).
Given the de?nition of environmental sustainability and the characteristics of event tourism
management, several key principles emerge to guide the incorporation of environmental
sustainability in event management.
Sustainable event management is complex and a managerial challenge that requires
carefully planning prior to the events
Event management is a multi-layer process involving interactions of various stakeholders
who have different motivations, interests, and perspectives in the process. Given the
dynamics and complexity of event tourism, and to be successful in incorporating
sustainability into its management, one should take a multi-stage approach. Marquardt et al.
(2007) identi?ed four stages involved in the process of planning and managing an event:
1. concept phase;
2. implementation phase;
3. during the event; and
4. post event.
Though it is crucial to integrate environmental sustainability into all stages of events, we
should not ignore the importance of concept phase. This phase encompasses establishing
a feasible commitment, identifying stakeholders, assessing environmental issues, and
determining the scope of event. Also, organizers build all the guiding principles and
operation strategies during this phase. This phase is the credo of sustainability for setting
goals and operational guidelines (de Bruyn, 2003). However, most evens are often speedy
through the concept phase due to the limitation and pressure of time (Hall, 1987). Hence,
environmental impact often receives little consideration. As a result, this common practice
heightens the risk of detrimental environmental impacts. For example, International Olympic
Committee (IOC) acknowledges the environment as its third pillar of Olympism. Yet
Demetres Karavvellas, the Chief Executive Of?cer of WWF-Greece, reported that Athens
Olympic Games caused irreversible environmental damage (Nantsou, 2004). His report
revealed that without a well thought-out environmental plan and management strategy, the
results of the Athens Games failed to meet the Bid Book’s promise of being sensitive to the
environment in all stages of development and operation. Seeing from those examples, one
Figure 1 Sustainable events
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can easily see that managers and organizers are the key personnel to initiate the planning
process and they must be proactive to put environmental sustainability as the priority of
event management.
Responsible stakeholders in event management is crucial in achieving environmental
sustainability
The maintenance of a qualitatively better event calls for collaboration of every member living
in the very same environmental-social system. Clearly, it is impossible to ful?ll all the
environmental guiding principles without full support of all stakeholders and community
members. However, the management of event tourism is goal-driven and value-based
(Getz, 2005). Stakeholders involved have diverse values, interests, and needs that likely
lead them to have different aims and concerns (Kearins and Pavlovich, 2002). Stakeholders
with different values and attitudes may prioritize the economic gain while having no concern
for the environment; this can lead to a range of negative consequences. In addition, some of
the stakeholders may hold sel?sh attitudes and jeopardize the achievement of event goals.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means that organizations take responsibility to
produce an event with concern for the consequences of events, including environmental
issues (Smith-Christensen, 2009). One can never achieve the promise of the environmental
sustainability goals unless corporate bodies take responsibility to society in general, as well
as to their shareholders (Kalisch, 2002). Not surprisingly, researchers pointed out that CSR is
a key factor in determining the success of achieving a sustainable event (Kearins and
Pavlovich, 2002; Raj and Musgrave, 2009). Stakeholder involvement is critical to the process
of incorporating sustainability into the management of event tourism. The divergent voices
and interests existing among stakeholders require considerable time for negotiation and
learning. The goal is to properly incorporate the principles of ecological sustainable concept
and environmental guidelines into operation, design and construction. The effort of getting
people to be involved should start as early as possible.
Offering information and education to raise the awareness of event goers is the key to putting
the sustainability into practice
Although people report that they care about the environment and are willing to purchase
green products, they have minimal knowledge about what real green products are and how
they should behaves in accordance with the environmental sustainability principles. The
involvement and devotion of all event-goers also affect the success or failure of sustainable
event management efforts. There is a need for event managers to provide information to
visitors, local residents, and stakeholders about the planning and conservation of the
destination resources. In addition, organizers should provide education information about
appropriate behavior when attending an event.
According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 1994), quality tourism requires
delivering good value for money, protecting tourism resources, and attracting ‘‘the kinds of
tourists who will respect the local environment and society’’ (p. 8). Not only event
organizations need to behave ethically, event-goers need to recognize their duties towards
the environment, host communities, and each other. An event is an information channel to
promote and spread the message of environmental sustainability. Organizers should take
two actions during the delivery of an event. One is engaging visitors and the wider public;
the other is to promote the initiatives (Marquardt et al., 2007).
First, during an event delivery, the event organizers need to make sure that all necessary
signage and information is properly designed and placed on site (Laing and Frost, 2010).
Organizers must inform of?cials, volunteers, and visitors about the initiatives, their roles, and
their expected contributions to the initiatives. Second, organizers should continue
communication of the various environmental sustainability activities during the event. That
way all spectators, including international visitors, come to understand, accept, and
embrace the individual initiatives. This is essential to ensure maximum public support and
take-up, for example in use of the public transport systems made available (Marquardt et al.,
2007).
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Conclusion
The growing awareness of the importance of delivering and hosting environmentally
sustainable events is becoming the standard in event planning worldwide. This paper
reviews he concept of environmental sustainability and explains generic principles for
adding environmental sustainability to event management. However, event tourism is the
sum of phenomena and the web of relationships of various industries ranging from
transportation to hospitalities and attractions. Diverse voices and interests exist. Organizers
cannot simply assume that the needs, interests, and environmental knowledge of
stakeholders and members of the host community, as well as tourists, are homogeneous.
Efforts of incorporating environmental sustainability principles must start early and weave
into each stage of event planning process. Organizers should build strategies and take
actions to initiate the collaboration among stakeholders. In addition, organizers should offer
educational information and activities to further secure the goals of an event and make the
event more in?uential in promoting the concept of environmental sustainability.
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About the author
Yulan Y. Yuan is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Institute of Hospitality & Tourism
Management, Jinwen University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Yulan Y. Yuan can be
contacted at: [email protected]
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