Exploring the Sikh Community Events and Tourism Potential in British Columbia, Canada

Event Insights

Canada is a country with vivid ranges of communities all over the world. Each and every community has their own celebrations and range of events. The diversified ranges of events by these communities are motivators to the tourism. These events are opportunities for the event managers of the different destinations. In this report I will discuss about the different events and celebrations of Sikh Community of British Colombia, who comprise around 1.5% of the population of Canada. The community celebrates their culture, politics, togetherness in the city of British Colombia turning into opportunities for the event manager, opening scopes of tourism. In this report we will discuss about their event typology and I will reflect on my learning from the different events and celebration and the potentiality of developing tourism from the events. I will further discuss on the role of special events in a community (Aujla ^[1])

The Sikh community comprises of over 200,000 people in British Colombia and celebration of different festivals by the community paves the path to various events and motivation to tourism. The celebrations are not just limited to the Sikh community various other Canadians also take part in these celebration to share their culture and celebrate with them. The Sikh community welcomes everyone to celebrate in their celebration. The Nagar Kirtan has a surprising participation of more around 500,000 attendants every year in the holy parade. The Fairs conducted during the communal meets carry an attendance of around 200000 people from the state and country who come to celebrate and know about the culture of the community (Basra ^[2]).

As I was researching on the events of the Sikh community, I found that various communities take part in the celebrations of the Sikh community. The huge participation is reflected in the number of the participants of the various events. which comprises of thousands of people attending these festive and cultural events. The events are the motivators to tourism as people from various parts of the country gather in these states to attend the events of the community. The cultural events are the motivators to the people who want to learn and experience the culture of the community through discovering and consuming different experiences of the cultural events. This certainly holds the potential to attract different tourist who want to explore the culture of the community. We can observe that various people of different communities also participate in the festivals and celebration of the Sikh community. This opens an area to explore the tourism and events for various tourism marketing sectors in the destinations of the events where they are held. As we came to know about the fairs and parades, these can be converted into exploration centers of tourism and area of growth for tourism industries. The potentialities of the events show how significant it is for tourism in these areas (Shahed ^[3])

Role of Special Events in Communities

The tourism of an area is only viable if the participants of the events are increasing in number, otherwise it is useless to explore a area which does not have the potential to generate revenue or incorporate services to be provided by the tourism industry. The number of attendants in ‘Nagar Kirtan’ the parades and the fairs during Lohri show hoew people are attracted towards these events and on inclusion of tourism prospects the events can shine more significantly, increasing the tourism potentiality of the events in various destinations of British Colombia, Canada. The inclusion of the tourism prospective can not only be beneficial to the tourism industry but the community as well as they can generate income from the same.

As a student of Tourism management I can say that attending events of the communities are forms of entertainment and relates to tourism. Participating in these events not only forms a pleasurable experience for me, but it also gives me the area to explore various prospects of learning on tourism. The memorable experiences help me in learning about tourism in practical grounds and gaining knowledge from the same (Connell ^[4])

All the event tourism experiences may not be pleasurable or some can be aversely effect the experience, this may occur due to social changes or the believe by the community to lose its authenticity on inclusion of tourism, dissatisfaction of the tourist regarding the factors related to The Cultural tourism is not just essential for the economic benefits of the tourism industries. It helps the community to share knowledge about the culture and social aspects of the community. The impact of tourism helps positively and negatively in both ways for the social, cultural and environment aspect of the destination and the community both.  The positive effects are as it paves the way for cultural and social awareness and its contribution to environmental protection and conservation. The negative effects are depletion of resources in environmental, social and cultural aspect. The pollution and waste problems are also part of the negative impacts  (Oklobdžija ^[6]).

The events can be successful on the involvement of the community. The participation of the community can enhance the experience of tourists as the communities are more attached to the culture of their community and give a better experience to the tourists of the destination. The involvement of the community is also important as without the involvement of them the tourism cannot be explored (Martiskainen ^[7]).

Cultural Celebrations

The globalization impacts the tourism in vast ways, as some of the communities say they may lose the authenticity through the involvement of tourism in their culture, there are instances too while globalization has impacted through tourism to retrieve various cultures and traditions which were on a verge of extinction (Coghlan^[8]).

The job and earning prospects of the community increases on inclusion of tourism At various events in their community. The economic gain is essential not only for the community, tourism helps in developing the economy of the country as high economic benefits can be gained through tourism (Getz ^[9])

The professional training and development of the organizational and business skills for the local people can increase their development and also the development of tourism. The better knowledge about the service to be provided and learning about other aspects related to tourism and tourists increases their capability to gain more of the economic benefit in better ways(Todd ^[10]).

The tourism destination and the culture and heritage of the destination are the aspects through which the tourism industries flourishes, therefore to develop tourism as a long going process, it is the duty to protect this destinations, cultures or heritages. So it can be said that beside environmental sustainability, the social and economic sustainability is also important. The events and event tourism can also be more sustainable through involving the communities and locals who understand the importance of the culture and environment (Schlemmer ^[11]).      

On reaching the saturation level or on feeling that the tourism is affecting adversely on the community such as to much involvement and creation of noise, the community may see tourism as a social problem, this may affect the tourist-destination harmony and the tourists may be unacceptable at certain time or may be ill-treated, thus it is important to involve the community in the process of tourism and maintain the harmony to keep the tourism alive in the destination. The tourism must be planted in such way that it does not affect the local community or environment  (Routledge ^[12] ).

The forces that will affect the tourism are the humans, economy, technology, environment, geopolitical factors. As the globalization is a part of the tourism, these five factors will affect the tourism in future depending on various destinations and communities. 

Lohri, Vaisakhi and Nagar Kirtan are widely celebrated festivals of the Sikh community residing in British Columbia, Canada. Associations, clubs and firms can hold carnivals of different types. The event management companies specializing in arranging festival carnivals can be hired to hold these carnivals. For example, Punjabi food carnivals can be held. The local restaurants can also participate in the festivals. Lohri and Vaisakhi commemorate important events as far as the Punjabi tradition is concerned. Lohri commemorates end of winter season and beginning of spring season. Vaisakhi is the New Year celebration as per the solar calendar in India. Vaisakhi is celebrated on the first day of the Vaisakh, the first month according to the solar calendar. Religious events are indispensable parts of all the three festivals. The people perform religious worships and give alms. Religious songs are sung during these festivals. Bands are often hired by clubs and associations to perform religious songs during these festivals. Songs dedicated to Lord Krishna and his consort Radha are commonly sung during these festivals.

Lohri, Vaisakhi and nagar Kirtan can be used to promote art and entertainment. For example, the Punjabi group associations and clubs can hold cultural dance shows to showcase traditional Punjabi dance forms include Bhangra and Gidda. Dance groups performing Indian dance forms are often hired. The local musical bands and troops of dancers can also be hired to perform as well as generate revenue. Thus, it can be established on the basis of the explanation that Vaisakhi, Lohri and Nagar Kirtan provide business opportunities to local entertainment professionals to perform and earn their livelihood. .

The festivals of Lohri, Vaisakhi and Nagar Kirtan can provide ample opportunities for business and trade. The event management companies can procure orders for meetings, conventions, consumer shows and trade shows. For example, conventions can be held to spread awareness about the importance of diversity management. Companies can choose to hold parties to engage their employees. Companies can hold consumer shows to exhibit their products and generate sales. Trade shows like automobile exhibitions can also be held during these festivals.

Sports competitions can be held at professional levels and amateur levels. For example, wrestling which is closely associated with the Punjabi community can be held both at the professional level and amateur levels during these festivals. They can attract participants and spectators in large numbers.

Conclusion

Events are an important part of tourism and they increase the potentiality to explore tourism. We learned about various events of the Sikh community and how many people participate in the events. We also learned about how events in different community play an important role in developing tourism in the destinations and hoe the tourism are beneficial to the communities as well. To conclude I would like to say that events are the motivator of tourism.

References

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2. Basra AK. Lived Experiences of Sikh Women in Canada: Past and Present. InWomen in the Indian Diaspora 2018 (pp. 187-200). Springer, Singapore.
3. Shahed K. Sikh Diaspora Nationalism in Canada. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism. 2019 Dec;19(3):325-45.
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5. Bhat SD. Sikh diasporic negotiations: Indian and Canadian history in Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?. Sikh Formations. 2018 Jan 2;14(1):55-70.
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8. Coghlan, A., & Mair, J. (2018). Be More, Know More: An Evaluation of Students' Learning in a Community Events Course. Event Management, 22(4), 583-594.
9. Getz D, Page SJ. Progress and prospects for event tourism research. Tourism management. 2016 Feb 1;52:593-631.
10. Todd L, Leask A, Ensor J. Understanding primary stakeholders' multiple roles in hallmark event tourism management. Tourism management. 2017 Apr 1;59:494-509.
11. Schlemmer P, Barth M, Schnitzer M. Research note sport tourism versus event tourism: Considerations on a necessary distinction and integration. InJournal of Convention & Event Tourism 2020 Mar 14 (Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 91-99).
12. Lee CS, Martin D, Hsieh PF, Yu WC. Principles of value creation in event tourism: Enhancing the competitiveness of regional clusters. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science. 2020 Oct 1;30(4):437-53.

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