ABSTRACT
Destination marketers must be able to incorporate each event into the destination's aggregate product and service mix in order to optimise the contribution of events to their tourism marketing. Providing opportunities for local business people to meet event tourists who might become customers or business partners can enhance local business networks, thus enhancing the value obtained from some sport event tourists. Effective local business leveraging of an event is coordinated most effectively through local business associations, in cooperation with government economic development agencies, or through task forces formed expressly for that purpose. The chapter considers the tourism to events and describes the necessary means to leverage benefits from an event for the destination. The necessity of thinking beyond individual sport events by considering the entire portfolio of events at the host destination is noted. The chapter analyses the notion that tourism benefits are a 'legacy' of events, and presents some necessary directions for future research.
