Sport tourism- Giro d`italia

Prov 1

Jonathan Cohen -960808-6915

Idrott, evenemang och turism, Prov 1 Höstterminen 2021

Kurskod: IV550G
Place, Person, Activity- Giro d`italia

Sport and tourism are two separate definitions that have been connected to each other in different
circumstances and settings and even trace back to as early as 776 BC to the Olympic games in
Greece where athletes where seen as professionals who toured around and participated in
competitions in order to win prizes, these competitions drew also the interest of spectators, and it
is reported that the games in Olympia attracted around 40,000 spectators (Weed & Bull, 2009).
Davies (1997) also explains that sports and tourism are often used as a means to “Bring different
peoples and cultures closer together”.

This early example shows that a competition or a sporting event can is a possibility to attract
tourism and for that reason can be a strategy for cities and countries looking for solutions to boost
their tourism. The aspect of where the competition takes place also has an effect on tourist
decisions to travel to a certain destination or sporting event, for example, the IHFF (Ice hockey
world championship) takes place every year, this might lead to the place playing bigger role in
peoples decision to travel to the competition as they might think next year’s destination might be
more attractive as the competition it self might be very similar to the year before and therefore
won’t matter much to their decision making. The attractiveness of the place might as well depend
on other tourist activities that are not related to the sport event and might influence the decision,
as Weed and Bull (2009) state some places has more significance than others in the eyes of sport
tourists as nostalgia or the heritage of a place can be a determinant factor.

To understand better the use and relation between the terms Place, Activity and People I choose
the cycling tournament Giro D’Italia which is an annual multiple stage cycling race created by
the newspaper La Gazzetta dello sport in the year 1909. The unique part of this sporting event is
that the race starts since 1965 has been outside of Italy starting in that year in San Marino, since
than the race started in 18 countries before continuing and ending in Italy. This arrangement is
beneficial for both parts (Giro D`Italia and the hosting country) as for the race this is an
opportunity to reach new spectators and audiences as well as it is a great opportunity for
countries to part host one of the biggest and most famous cycling tours in the world (Wikipedia,
list of host cities) . Out of the hosting countries over the years the one who caught my eye is
Israel who hosted the opening race in 2018. Most particular in that case was that the work of
bringing the tour to Israel was done by Sylvan Adams, a Canadian Israeli entrepreneur who saw
an opportunity to show different sides of a country in conflict as well as gain different kind of
media coverage than Israel might otherwise get in the news.

”Bringing the Giro d’Italia to Israel will provide the opportunity for hundreds of
millions of sport fans to see our country. We are bypassing the traditional media,
we are reaching the sport fans. They are apolitical by nature.”
(Sylvan Adams), (Belcastro, 2020)
“Our pluralistic culture, our mixed society, that has both Jew and Arabs and other citizens, how
we all get along. This is what is going to be on display, what I call normal Israel.”
(Sylvan Adams) (Belcastro, 2020)

Israel, which is a country with no big cycling history has managed to bring one of the biggest
cycling tours in the world with the help of the billionaire Sylvan Adams who paid 16 million US
dollars to get the hosting of the tour as well as starting a new Israeli cycling team as Israel did not
have one organized before, he named the team “Israel start-up nation” and uses the team as
another tool to promote Israeli success. This made me as an Israeli directly understand, especially
with the help of the citations above that this tournament is used for publicity and tourism as prime
goal as me and plenty of others through the years have experienced a different Israel than the one
Sylvan Adams, a world known billionaire has chosen to show the world with the help of his
finances and political power.

Boyle and Haggerty (2009) define mega-events as “high-profile, deeply symbolic affairs that
typically circulate from host city to host city”, they also add that it “offers an opportunity to
promote a distinctive image of the city to a global audience that can, it is hoped, consolidate its
position within the global hierarchy of cities” the numbers show that viewership only through
Eurosport reached 4.8 million viewers (Rubinstein 2018) and in Italian TV reached a peak of 3.8
million viewers (Gary, 2021), the numbers alone and the exposure suggest that the event is a
mega event in relation to the definition of Boyle and Haggerty.

The main difference between the three sporting events mentioned above is that a cycling tour
gives the opportunity to show the country’s landscape, different historical sites and as Sylvan
Adams said “ Show off Jerusalem and show our Knesset (house of representatives)”, this is done
with the purpose of giving a clear picture of a democratic state as well as show to the world that
Jerusalem belongs to Israel and that cant be questioned, showing that through arranging a
sporting event starting in Jerusalem which is Israel`s capital and showing the city’s prosperity
will give all the viewers a clear view of who this land belongs as well as promote tourism and
refute prejudice people may have about Israel (Belcastro, 2020).

Weed and Bull (2006) explain that as most cycling tours involve travel between places it has a
direct link to tourism already in the activity itself, furthermore they state that different types of
cycling, even at elite level is an example of the relations between people, place and activity from
the relation between spectators and participants which is a part of the tour or even for recreational
purpose where the activity of cycling is done as part of people touring from one place to another
weather its for the purpose of the place or the activity both will be involved. The movement
between places (participant, not spectators) is not as common in other sports as they take place at
one place cycling is about travel, this gave Israel a chance to show different landscapes and areas
in the country which adds more to tourism value than just showing a sporting arena which might
be attractive for the purpose of the event but might not draw tourist after.
Furthermore, the effect on tourism is illustrated through Israel’s total market value of tourism
firms which rose by 1.6% (From USD$ 1,959,876,860 to USD$ 31,358,029) directly after the
announcement that Israel will host the opening race of Giro D`italia (Nicolau, Sharma &
Zarankin, 2019).

"A billion people watched this event. They saw all of Israel, because the race takes place
outdoors, unlike a soccer game in which all that you see is an enclosed stadium. We had a billion
people who watched us without the typical journalism news portraying Israel as an unsafe place.
Here we reached masses of people who are just sport fans who aren't interested in politics. We
had a billion first-time visitors to Israel via their television screens."
(Sylvan Adams) (Raz-Chaimovich, 2020)

When it comes to aspects of creating identity, I recognize this as a case of trying to present to an
already existing identity to the rest of the world, an identity which exists but is unknown to most
of the world. The hope is that getting worldwide recognition of that identity can also strengthen
the local belief in that identity.

 “He accepted my invitation to travel to Israel and saw our beautiful country, our geography,
and our bicycle culture. He also saw that we were a modern and pluralistic country, and most
importantly, a safe country. Unfortunately, we have an image that we have to combat all the
time and work hard to simply prove that we're a normal country.”
(Sylvan Adams) (Raz-Chaimovich, 2020)
References:

Boyle, P. & Haggerty, K. (2009). ‘Spectacular Security: Mega-Events and the Security
Complex’,

Davies, N. (2014). Europe: A history. Random House.

Francesco Belcastro (2020): Sport, politics and the struggle over ‘normalization’ in post-Oslo
Israel and Palestine, Mediterranean Politics, DOI: 10.1080/13629395.2020.1845938

Nicolau, J. L., Sharma, A., & Zarankin, T. (2019). The effect of the 2018 Giro d’Italia on Israel’s
tourism firm value. Tourism Economics, 25(7), 1070-1083.

Weed, M., & Bull, C. (2012). Sports tourism: Participants, policy and providers. Routledge.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2018/05/06/millions-watch-giro-ditalia-speed-by-breathtaking-israeli-
scenery/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Giro_d%27Italia_Grande_Partenzas

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-sylvan-adams-giro-ditalia-was-our-answer-to-bds-1001265798

https://endurance.biz/2021/industry-news/big-numbers-for-giro-ditalia-website-app-and-socials/