Kaohsiung World Games as a catalyst for sustainable urban development.

Over the last thirty years the staging of events such as major sporting events has become increasingly recognised as part of development strategies within cities, regions and even countries. Behind such a phenomenon is a fierce competition between potential hosts because of the belief that these can achieve economic, social, environmental, political, cultural and tourism benefits for the hosting areas. As a consequence of the proliferation of these events, there is an increasing need to assess whether such strategy is effective. In this context, impact studies are vital. Traditionally, sports mega-event studies focused on the various impacts and on specific sports megaevents such as the Olympic Games and the football World Cup. Yet comparatively little is known about the procedures prior to the event, or about other types of events such as the World Games. To address these omissions this study investigates host residents' attitudes towards potential impacts prior to the 2009 World Games. It includes the perspectives of key stakeholders, with particular attention to sustainability issues. The research is based on a conceptual framework underpinned by a mixed methods approach that integrates consumer behaviour theory and the concept of a 'Triple Bottom Line' within a sustainable development perspective. A questionnaire survey, observations and semi-structured interviews are the primary data collection methods. For the quantitative research method, purposive sampling was selected. A combination of analysis techniques was employed, including factor analysis, T-test, One-way analysis of variance, Logistic regression and Chi-square. For the qualitative research method, snowball and purposive sampling approaches were adopted, with content analysis and thematic analysis.The findings of this research, are significant. Compared with most studies - which indicate that host residents are more negative about host impacts after events - this research found that they view the staging of the Games in a positive light generally prior to the Games. This quantitative research found that: (a) host residents tended to show a certain level of agreement on potential positive impacts but were uncertain about potential negative impacts and long-term economic effects; (b) there is a high level of support for the idea of hosting 2009 World Games (91%); (c) within different groups of marital status, age, occupation and education there were significant differences inattitudes towards the negative impacts; and (d) the event organisers and government authorities were not entirely successful in communicating to host residents Kaohsiung's objective of investing in the Games as a general strategy to benefit host communities. In contrast, evaluation of the use of a conceptual framework has successfully identified emerging issues in relation to the sustainability of staging the 2009 World Games. The qualitative study indicated that compared with the economic and social issues, the event planners appeared to place more emphasis on a wider range of environmental issues. However, in practice, Kaohsiung's 2009 World Games has not promoted sustainable development more generally from the outset.The results contribute to the wider knowledge of sustainability issues in the planning process and management of a sports mega-event. They add new theoretical insights by developing and testing a conceptual framework to overcome barriers in the evaluation of a sustainable sports mega-event. Practically, the findings are important to event managers, and help provide authorities (KCG) and event organisers (KOC) baselines to facilitate effective dialogue with host residents and to grow support for the Games. The regular assessment of the Games can provide more accurate information. Future event research considering a longitudinal survey and the TBL and SD concepts could apply this framework to studies before, during and post-event.