An analysis of event-related research across allied fields

Abstract

Planned events have become an important feature in most destinations. Specifically, sustainable events have gained prominence in the recent past. Event organizers, participants, and event sponsors have become increasingly aware of the need to conduct sustainable events whereby the community, the environment, and economic benefits are all significantly considered when planning and hosting events. In 2013, Getz regarded planned events to primarily consist of five major fields: tourism, arts and culture, hospitality, sports, and leisure and recreation. It is under this premise that a content analysis was undertaken to examine published peer-reviewed articles related to planned events. Additionally, publications focusing on sustainable events articles were considered in the study. A total of five top-tier journals, one from each field, were selected and relevant publications from the year 2005 to 2015 were identified. The study found sports to have the largest proportion of event-related publications. Also, the distribution of sustainable event-related publications was relatively consistent with a mean of 1.6 publications every year. However, with only 16.5% of the total event-related publications centered on sustainability, there was an indication of limited research on the concept of sustainability in planned events. Therefore, there remains a need to undertake more research to better understand the long-term contributions of events to a destination.