ABSTRACT
Popular and academic discourse about event legacies emerged as a response to the failed claim that events are good investments for host destinations. By requiring organizers to plan for legacies, event owners could counter such claims, thereby rationalizing their demand on public resources and sentiment. However, the legacy framework fails to withstand conceptual or empirical scrutiny. On the other hand, it has been shown that strategic planning to combine an event into the mix of products and services at the host destination can enable leveraging tactics to foster targeted economic and/or social benefits. Empirically supported models for formulating leverage are available. Their loci of action and policy differentiate them from models of legacy, and make them preferable.
