Perception of residents about sustainability impacts of mega events: A case study of Qatar World Cup 2022
Date
0023-09-29
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Publisher
Saudi Digital Library
Abstract
The objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the perception of the residence of the Doha city about the sustainability impact of the World Cup 2022. Using stakeholder and triple bottom line theories, this study argues that degree of involvement (independent variable) of the residents of host city in a mega event depends upon their perception about event’s economic, social, and environmental (dependent variables) impact on the host city. Following quantitative methodology, this dissertation collected 246 responses through conducting an online survey using convenience sampling technique. Findings subjected to descriptive and correlation analysis to test research hypothesis. Analysis of data reveals that despite of having economic, social, and environmental concerns, residents of the Doha city showed their commitment towards involving in the World Cup 2022. This is proved by the results of correlation analysis that reveals positive and significant relation between economic and social perception of Doha residents about World Cup 2022 and their involvement in the event. However, moderate yet significant relationship is found between the perception of Doha city residents about the environmental impact of the World Cup 2022 and their involvement in the event. It is found that reason behind trade-offs between economic, social, and environmental perception of the World Cup 2022 and their involvement in the event comes from their emotional attachment to the event as it created their social identity, development tourism brand image of the Doha city, and led to developing their national pride. These findings implicate that residence of the Doha forgo economic, social, and environmental concerns because of their emotional attachment with the country, however organizers could have done more to take locals in confidence through more direct communication. Therefore, this study recommends authorities to develop clear communication plan to improve awareness of the people about sustainability issues while holding future mega events. Exclusion of demographic variables from the analysis and small research population are two key limitations of this study.
Description
Sporting mega events tends. to be a one-off event that attracts attention of the globe (Taha and Allan, 2019). FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 called as the most expensive sporting event in the history with the price tag of US$220bn (Craig, 2022). The massive price tag of FIFA World Cup 2022 raises question about the legacy of the world cup for the residents of the Doha city (Royer, 2022). Qatar built seven brand new stadiums for holding sixty-four football matches for FIFA 2022 World Cup (Nag, 2023). Additionally, various civic infrastructure development also took place to prepare Doha city for the World Cup. Extant literature reveals that residents of host cities of mega events may have positive socio-economic perception, however negative perception of long-term opportunity cost (Kaplanidou et al., 2013). Kim and Kaplanidou (2019) are of the view that resident’s opposition to sporting mega events comes due to the high associated cost for the host city. Extant literature largely identifies positive attitude of local residents about the mega events (Lee et al., 2012), however most of these studies covers reoccurring events rather than one-off event such as FIFA World Cup. Therefore, through investigating the perception of the residents of Doha city, this study aims to fill the void in literature about the perception of residents of host city about the one-off mega sporting events.
There also exists practical reasons for investigating the perception of local residents about the FIFA World Cup 2022 because it will have direct implications on the success of future such as events. Qatar expected to host various events in 2023 including Formula One Grand Prix, Expo 2023. and the Asian Football Federation Cup (Mohammed, 2023). Therefore, identification of the views of the residents about the sustainability of sporting events can help organizers in strategizing the future events. Pre-event evaluation of the perception of the local residents assisted Chinese authorities improving the facilities for tourists with minimum impact on the lives of local communities during Shanghai World Expo 2010 (Ye et al., 2012)
Keywords
respondents by residence in Doha city, Qatar World Cup 2022, Perception of residents about economic impact of World Cup 2022, Perception of residents about social impact of World Cup 2022, Perception of residents about environmental impact of World Cup 2022, Sustainability of mega sporting events, Economic impact of mega events, Social impact of mega events, Environmental impact of mega events, Frequency of respondents by residence in Doha city, Perception of residents about sustainability impacts of mega events: A case study of Qatar World Cup 2022, Research objectives and questions of Water world cup, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Positive economic perception of Qatar WC 2022 positively impacts resident’s involvement in the event, Negative economic perception of Qatar WC 2022 negatively impacts resident’s involvement in the event
Citation
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