1. Sport Tourism

Harris, J and Lepp, A, 2011, Golf, Tourism and the 2010 Ryder Cup: (De)constructing Images of Wales, Journal of Sport & Tourism, 16:1, 55-73, DOI:10.1080/14775085.2011.568093.

This article explains about the needs to utilize the Ryder Cup as an opportunity of improving tourism activities. As explained in the article, the Ryder Cup is the competition of premier team sport of golf. It is usually contested on a biennial basis between the best teams of players from Europe and USA. It is regarded as one of the major events across the world, which needs attention of all stakeholders in the tourism industry. The event was initially hosted by Wales in 2010 and was staged by Celtic Manor Resort in Newport. During this first event, the Wales took advantage of promoting themselves across the world, as it positioned itself on an international sporting level, as well as raising their profile in terms of tourism and sports. The event shaped the Wales to become one of the tourist destinations across the globe. Furthermore, this article provides various explorations of the event and how Wales benefited from various promotional activities that ensued such as using policy documentations to attract more tourists and investors at the same time. The article shows how the country was perceived as a place of investment, as a result of the Ryder Cup events. The overall benefits of this article was to show how the Wales’ image was improved towards making it a perfect destination for both tourists and investors, thereby promoting the country’s economic level.

Banyai, M and Potwarka, L, 2012, Assessing destination images of an Olympic host city using social media, European Journal of Tourism Research 5(1), pp. 6-18.

This article provides an assessment of destination image created as a component of Vancouver post Olympic Winter Games in 2010. The study achieved its objectives through the examination and analysis of the comments posted on the event’s official Facebook page. The analysis was conducted using CATPAC II software that revealed how two aspects of destination image in relation to Vancouver. In fact, the article notes that the social networking mediums can provide rich information about travel destinations thus shaping perceptions and expectations about it among visitors. The advantage of this article is that it recognizes media’s significance in shaping people’s travel plans. Altogether, the article demonstrates the manner in which marketers within tourismcan take advantage of social media to accelerate visitors to a destination.