Non-devotees’ Engagement with a Mega Sporting Event: the Case of the Rugby World Cup 2011
Abstract:
Hallmarking a mega event to strengthen tourism leverage is a strategy adopted by Tourism New Zealand (TNZ). Mega sport events also provide the host country a legitimate approach to promote their national identities and cultures on a global scale. Different from other event stakeholders, the host community is also the stakeholder whose role can be the contributor, benefactor, and beneficiary, or sufferer throughout the whole event process. Causality exists between early stakeholder input of host community and impacts of the event. The Rugby World Cup 2011’s “uniquely New Zealand” thumb-printing slogan may create doubts of national identity for the migrants from non-rugby background countries of origin who are not devotees of rugby. This research will focus on whether the Rugby World Cup 2011 is sufficiently powerful in connecting to non-devotee communities with the hype of the event to supersede the lack of interest in the type of event; and the level of engagement of the non-devotee communities into such a mega sporting event.
Biography:
Chloe Lau is an Instructor and Programme Leader (BAC Xi’an) of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She is the recipient of the SHTM Teaching Excellence Award 2009 and the President’s Award for Excellent Performance in Teaching 2009. Chloe has served as the Regional Services Manager (Greater Auckland Region) for CNSST, one of the largest NGOs in New Zealand. After studying and working in Hawaii, Chloe returned to Hong Kong and joined the Peninsula Clubs & Consultancy Services, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited and was involved in various projects from feasibility studies, planning, development, opening to operation stages. Chloe is now working on her PhD at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). She received her Master of Business in Tourism, First Class Honour, from AUT, and her Bachelor of Science in Travel Industry Management, with Distinction, from University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA.
