The Role Of Event Industry In Regional Development Of Australia

Question:

You are to write an academic essay which critically discusses the following statement:

‘The events industry is an effective and appropriate vehicle for the facilitation of regional development’.

Event industry of Australia has started to contribute significantly in the regional development of the country (Mills and Rosentraub 2013). Most of the literature has highlighted only the economic benefit of the event industry on regional development. However, it essay will highlight the effects of event industry on economic, social and cultural and environmental development of the region. Moreover, the essay will critically discuss the way in which event industry has become an effective and appropriate vehicle for facilitation of regional development.

Event industry is the most rapidly growing industry in Australia. With the steady and rapid growth of the industry, it has wide contribution in the regional development of the country. The most popular sectors in Australian event industry are festivals, sports, music, tourism, mega, hall, business, culture and lot more events (Mair and Whitford 2013). Increasing popularity of the Australian events has made Australian even industry strong enough, which has become an effective and appropriate vehicle for the facilitation of regional development. Moreover, even industry has extreme significance on the contemporary society of the Australia.

Event industry has significant contribution on regional development of Australia through contributing in economic development, social and cultural development and environmental and touristic development. The first and foremost contribution of event industry on regional development is its ability to foster economic growth of the region. According to Zaei and Zaei (2013), popular events highly attract the travelers and audience towards purchasing the event tickets. Therefore, it encourages the attendees in spending money to the food and beverage items, accommodation and other activities. Moreover, Mills, B.M. and Rosentraub (2013) stated that one specific event can foster economic development of other surrounding business like food and beverage sector, hotel sector, transportation sector and others. While considering the example Melbourne Cup in Melbourne, it can be found that Melbourne Cup sports event highly contributes in the economic development of Melbourne region. Moreover, the attendees spend almost AUD $200 on the local business development per day over 10 day’s period (Victoria Racing Club 2017).

Mackellar and Nisbet (2017) pointed out that event industry contributes in the economic development of the region through creation of ample of job opportunities for the unemployed persons. Such increased employment ultimately increases the tax and revenue of the government from the tax collected from the employed persons. On the other hand, Veselovsky et al. (2015) opined that the event sectors have also significant contribution in local government through contribution of taxes. In this way, event industry contributes in the economic development of region. While considering the example of ‘Big Day Out’ Music Event of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Gold Coast, it can be found that Big Day Out event has huge contribution in the creation of employments in these regions. The event was first debuted in the year 1992. The event is constantly creating ample job opportunities for the unemployed persons of these regions. Moreover, this music event has created almost 10% job opportunities for the unemployed persons of such regions (Bigdayout.com 2017).

Social and Cultural Development

As per Hansen (2013), event industry contributes in the development of tourism and economy through event tourism in the region. Moreover, such event tourism attracts huge international tourists in the region for enjoying the specific attraction of that particular region. In this way, the event industry has huge contribution in tourism development and economic development of the region through the revenues collected from the tourists coming to the tourism event. While considering the evidence from Australia Day in the most famous cities of Australia, it can be found that such event attracts huge numbers of tourists both from domestic as well as international countries. In this way, foreign currencies added to the local currency actually leads to economic growth of the regions.

Event industry has huge impact on the social and cultural development of the region. According to Ziakas (2013), the collaborative effort of the community people towards arranging a special event leads to shared experience of the people among the community. Moreover, the collaboration of different people in the event programs increases the community participation of the people. In this way, event industry facilitates in enhancing the social networking within the community. Furthermore, Lew (2014) opined that event programs bring people together and direct them towards open and innovative ideas for community growth. In this way, such togetherness ultimately enhances the level of social cohesion and trust of the community people among each other. Such social bonding has huge impact on increased validation of community people through strong community unity. While considering the example of Falls Festival of Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales gathers huge numbers of community people through the popularity of its Music and Art Events. Being debuted in the year 1993, this event has gained huge popularity among the people, which gathers huge people together at the event show. Thus, the collaborative gathering of the community people fortifies local relationship among the community people, which enhances the quality of life of the community people (Fallsfestival.com 2017).

Mair and Whitford (2013) pointed out that event industry fosters revitalization of tradition among the region, which enhances the validation of cultural value of the region. Moreover, revitalization of tourism leads to cultural pride of the region to the tourists. On the other hand, Getz and Page (2016) opined that some special events like regional festivals attract international as well inter regional tourists. In this way, such events enhance the cultural collaboration and expansion of cultural perspectives for the region. While considering the example of Brisbane Festival in Brisbane region, it has been found that Brisbane Festival regional art festival had been inaugurated in the year 1996. Moreover, this international art festival gathers people from different regions of Australia as well as international countries (Australia.gov.au 2017). In this way, this particular event enhances the shared vision of region through intercultural communication.  

Environmental Development

Event industry has also huge contribution in the environmental development of the regions. However, it is not an exact and direct vehicle of environmental development of any region. Mackellar and Nisbet (2017) stated that the scope and attractiveness of event programs are largely dependent on urban transformation and renewal for proper arrangement of the event shows. In this way, urban transformation and renewal lead to environmental sustainability of a particular region. On the other hand, Lew (2014) opined that event industry significantly contributes in increasing environmental awareness among the community people. In this way, event industry takes a step towards environmental sustainability. While considering the example of Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, it can be seen that Melbourne Food and Wine Festival uses mostly biodegradable cleaning products for enhancing the environmental sustainability of Melbourne (Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2017).  On the other hand, such event sectors also adhere to Infrastructural legacy for fostering environmental sustainability.

While concluding the study, it can be said that event industry of Australia has huge contribution on regional development through economic, social and environmental development of the regions.  Event programs increase the local funding of the region through the ticket purchased by the event attendees. Moreover, a particular event can also have significant impact on the economic development of its surrounding business like hotels, transportations, restaurants and lot more. On the other hand, the collaboration effort of the community people towards arranging an event program actually increases the social cohesion of the community people. Apart from that, event industry also enhances the environmental awareness of people among the community. In this way, it can be said the events industry is an effective and appropriate vehicle for the facilitation of regional development.

Reference List

Australia.gov.au. 2017. Festivals in Australia | australia.gov.au. [online] Available at: https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/festivals-in-australia [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Bigdayout.com. 2017. Big Day Out. [online] Available at: https://www.bigdayout.com/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Fallsfestival.com. 2017. Falls Festival 2017/18. [online] Available at: https://fallsfestival.com/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Getz, D. and Page, S.J., 2016. Progress and prospects for event tourism research. Tourism Management, 52, pp.593-631.

Hansen, T., 2013. Bridging regional innovation: cross-border collaboration in the Øresund Region. Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography, 113(1), pp.25-38.

Lew, A.A., 2014. Scale, change and resilience in community tourism planning. Tourism Geographies, 16(1), pp.14-22.

Mackellar, J. and Nisbet, S., 2017. Sport events and integrated destination development. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(13), pp.1320-1335.

Mair, J. and Whitford, M., 2013. An exploration of events research: event topics, themes and emerging trends. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 4(1), pp.6-30.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. 2017. Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. [online] Available at: https://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Mills, B.M. and Rosentraub, M.S., 2013. Hosting mega-events: A guide to the evaluation of development effects in integrated metropolitan regions. Tourism Management, 34, pp.238-246.

Veselovsky, M.Y., Gnezdova, J.V., Romanova, J.A., Kirova, I.V. and Idilov, I.I., 2015. The strategy of a region development under the conditions of new actual economic. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(5), p.310.

Victoria Racing Club. 2017. Melbourne Cup Carnival. [online] Available at: https://www.flemington.com.au/melbournecupcarnival [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

Zaei, M.E. and Zaei, M.E., 2013. The impacts of tourism industry on host community. European journal of tourism hospitality and research, 1(2), pp.12-21.

Ziakas, V., 2013. A multidimensional investigation of a regional event portfolio: Advancing theory and praxis. Event Management, 17(1), pp.27-48.