About

Summary 

Today Mega Events have become a global phenomenon that reach many countries around the world.  Sporting events typically grab the headlines as nations compete against one another and ensuring a lucrative legacy has become of increasing importance to hosting countries.  Mintel commissioned Acorn to produce a specialist niche market report to examine Mega Events and their legacies with detailed case studies of recent, major events, what their impacts are and how the concept of a legacy was born with a specific focus on tourism.

Our Approach 

Acorn’s extensive research involved studying the evolution of Mega Events and profiled some of the leading events in the world today, both sporting and cultural.  The impact of mega events was discussed including tourist demand and expenditure, drawing on examples from past mega events and how tourism was impacted.  Tour operator supply to the market was also analysed along with other legacies such an event generates beyond tourism, such as economic benefits, transport infrastructure, venue building and environmental factors.  The research included a number of mega event case studies including the 2012 London Olympics, which fully explored the measures that were underway at the time to ensure a future legacy that offered the greatest potential for the country.

Outcome 

The research concluded that evaluating mega events for tourism purposes may be difficult if there is no reliable statistics base upon which to measure the impact of the visitor economy, particularly in destinations with developing tourism industries.  Acorn anticipated that in the future, mega events will become more focused upon delivering an environmentally friendly event and a green agenda will be essential with features such as sustainable transport and energy efficient schemes.  Sponsorship was also expected to grow and become more valuable, particularly this age of advanced communications that allows fast internet access and the ability to stream to a vast global audience.