A Midterm Assessment of the Host Population’s Perceptions of the 1996 Summer Olympics: Support, Attendance, Benefits, and Liabilities

Abstract

This midterm assessment of a trend study analysis that began in 1992 was designed to monitor the perceptions of residents of Georgia regarding the 1996 Olympic Games. Over time, Georgia resident support remained strong, projected attendance decreased greatly, the intangible benefits were ranked greater than the economic issues, and the top perceived negative consequences dealt with law enforcement issues.

Local residents’ perceptions of the impacts of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 on Barbados: Comparisons of pre- and post-games

“…These findings were consistent with that of prior research into the perceptions of residents' to hosting mega-events (Kim et al, 2006;Mihalik, 2000). .10*** .40*** .19*** .10*** 1.00 Price increase .06** .26*** .10*** .08*** .35*** 1.00 Construction costs À.27*** .33*** À.31*** À.19*** .12*** .12*** 1.00…”

“…One explanation for this finding might be that mega-events are viewed as world-class, unique events and as a result Barbadians may have perceived that the benefits to be received from being a host would be worth the costs incurred (Gursoy & Kendall, 2006). Post-games perceptions of the benefits were lower than their pre-games perceptions, corroborating the findings of previous research (Kim et al, 2006;Mihalik, 2000). However, the study also found that the gaps between Barbadians' pre-and post-games perceptions of economic, and natural resources and cultural development benefits were quite small, suggesting that actual positive impacts may have fallen reasonably in line with residents' pre-games perceptions.…”

Long-term legacy implications for Olympic Games.

“…Waitt (2001) suggests that the actual hosting of a mega-event can also result in a phenomenon called 'civic boosterism', which has the capacity to unite polarised socio-economic sections of the community through the generation of feelings of community pride. The conclusion drawn from Waitt's study is that the local response to mega-events is complex, agreeing with other writers such as Fredline and Faulkner (2000), and Ley and Olds (1988) and Mihalik and Simonetta (1999), in that the residents ranked intangible benefits higher than the economic ones. In Waitt's study, the level of citizen support diminished the closer the Games got, as they became more concerned about the negative benefits.…”

Understanding strategic alignment for destination marketing and the 2004 Athens Olympic Games: Implications from extracted tacit knowledge

“…From the budgetary perspective, the amount for organizing each Winter Olympic Games costs over US $800 million and twice as much for a Summer Olympic Games (Persson, 2002). In large-scale events, most tourism research (e.g., Adamo, 2003;Deccio & Baloglu, 2002;Gratton et al, 2000;Hiller, 1998;Jones, 2001;Mihalik & Simonetta, 1999;Pyo, Cook, & Howell, 1988;Pyo, Uysal, & Howell, 1988;Waitt, 2003) aimed at examining short-term and visitationrelated impacts, rather than long-term outcomes such as strategic development and knowledge management/transfer. Given the huge public and private investments involved in these large-scale events, the need to fill this gap in the extant literature seems surprisingly obvious and necessary.…”