Investigating the Impact of Sport Events on the International Brand Image of the Host: a Study of Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Since the launch of its strategic vision (Vision 2030), Saudi Arabia (SA), has become a prominent place for globally recognised sports events, with one key aim being to diversify the country’s intensely oil-based economy. As part of this international nation-branding strategy, SA’s decision-makers rely heavily on sports events (SEs) to re-brand the image of the country, to draw foreign tourists, attract investments, and to challenge the enduring negative images associated with the country reputation. The primary aim of this critical realism-rooted project (Baskar, 2013) was to explore the image impact of a portfolio of non-mega sports events hosted in SA – in this case, Formula One (F1), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and golf's Ladies European Tour (LET) – for the international image of SA. The research was underpinned by social representation theory (SR) as a methodological framework (Moscovici, 1984); and the adoption of abductive and retroductive research strategies. It developed and disseminated twelve mixed-methods surveys for each studied SE among two targeted spectator groups (UK and France) before and after each event. In this study, hosting the three SEs was found to cause a minimal image improvement pre- to post-events for SA’s image in the UK. Despite the limited impact on the i Finally, in terms of the differences between the UK and French perceptions, there were some commonalities in the pre-events fields pertaining to SA’s brand image between the two studied populations (e.g., location, weather and language) which also included negative themes (e.g., human rights & abuse). However, there is a notable difference between the two populations post-events (i.e., French respondents’ perception was notably improved), which suggests that hosting the SEs has, in part, facilitated the re-branding efforts of SA in France.