ABSTRACT
During the last thirty years there have been energetic image enhancement and promotional campaigns by a number of different localities throughout the world (Pike 2008), with the enhancement and promotion of location image now being seen as a vital part of economic development strategies (Richards and Wilson 2004). In order to attract both footloose industries and highly qualified employees, locations are increasingly promoting themselves ‘through the use of imaging strategies in the form of attractive slogans and marketable images as well as through development projects, events and festivals that are in line with the[ir] chosen image’ (Chang 1997: 547). As Page (1995: 217) notes, ‘the development of festivals and special events may make an important contribution to the image of a location’ and therefore may have a significant impact upon economic development. Media coverage of these events disseminates images of place throughout the local, national
and international media, potentially reaching a far greater number and range of audiences than conventional place marketing campaigns would do (Bradley 2002; Jago et al. 2003). This coverage reaches a number of discrete audiences and has tangible and intangible impacts. These include potential investors whose decisions may be influenced by the images of the location that they receive through the media and the local business community who might be convinced that the economic strategies of the local authority and other bodies responsible for place marketing and development have been successful. The coverage of these events, then, is crucial in selling places to both internal and external audiences and thus, ‘the perception of cities, and their mental image, [become] active components of economic success or failure’ (Ashworth and Voogd 1990: 3) The purpose of this chapter is to examine the way in which locations have invested in events
and festivals with a view to generate positive images of place which can be transmitted via the media to a variety of different audiences. However, in order to do this, there is a need to examine the broader place promotion context in which this has taken place and to uncover the increasing role that events have played in this process. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the current research into the transmission of place image through the media coverage of events from the perspective both of the various audiences receiving the images and of event managers who are trying to control the images that are disseminated, based on two case studies of the media coverage of Cheltenham’s (UK) various events.
