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Comment: Olympic rings don’t drive a tourism bonanza

Eugene Thomlinson The Olympic Games are the host country’s ultimate infomercial — an opportunity to present a desired image to the world.
Eugene Thomlinson

The Olympic Games are the host country’s ultimate infomercial — an opportunity to present a desired image to the world. But despite all the eyes on the venue and its postcard images, there are often few tangible benefits after the brief exposure.

Covering Sochi 2014, there were 464 TV channels worldwide, almost twice as many as at the Vancouver Olympics. And digital platforms offer 155 websites and 75 apps. In fact, more than half of the record 100,000 hours of programming were digital, intended for iPads and computers as well as TV screens.

Between coverage of medal ceremonies, national hosts get a chance to change or improve their standing in the eyes of the world. China wanted to be seen as a technologically advanced and progressive society. Australia was inspiring, capable, diverse and modern. Canada was sophistication on the edge of nature in Vancouver.

When a country makes a bid to host the Games — or any other big event such as the World Cup or the Commonwealth Games — officials encourage public support by pitching the long-term tourism benefits. But research shows that watching two weeks of Olympic coverage doesn’t often mean an avid viewer will get off the couch after the closing ceremonies and plan a vacation to that area.

These destination images get only a brief blip of attention from travellers afterward, unlike movie tourism, which can have beneficial effects long after the film is released.

Marketing that is directly aligned with the Games strategy can make some difference. As many previous Games hosts have discovered, these campaigns are critical to the success of any change in image.

Calgary’s Olympic image carried over for a brief time, but quickly fell off as the world’s eyes shifted to other events and venues. Russia seems to have failed at this. At Sochi, very little official messaging or advertising has been targeted at the viewing audiences.

Barcelona is one of the only recent successes, turning the 1992 Olympics into a long-term boon for its image and tourism.

What about Russia? Russia wanted to be seen as a world power, modern and forward-looking. This is not the image that much of the global media have been reporting, though, at least not at the start of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics — even though the logistical hiccups at Sochi have not been much worse than at many previous Olympics.

Media focused on a lack of accommodations, reports of corruption and security fears, and the cost of hosting the Games. One Los Angeles Times reporter talked about the new Olympic motto of “unfinished, unsettling and uninviting.” At the beginning, #SochiProblems was out-trending the official hashtag of #Sochi2014.

Some of the impressions of the Games initially can be tied to perceptions of Russia and particularly President Vladimir Putin himself. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that most of the people who saw Putin positively also viewed the Games positively.

Just prior to the Games starting, opinions of citizens around the world tended to be either negative or mixed. Young people 18 to 29 were much more likely to feel positively than those 50 years and older. For generations raised on Cold War images, it might be difficult to see Russia any other way.

So what will the lasting images of Sochi be? Likely the images of winners, arms raised in triumph, and the athletes who didn’t quite make it to the podium being consoled by coaches for their efforts.

When the snow has melted and the Games have been put to bed for another four years, we can hope that the region’s residents will have facilities and infrastructure that will ultimately benefit them and make lasting impressions of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

And if tourists come — to enjoy either the tropical palms or the snow — it’s a bonus.

Eugene Thomlinson is a faculty member in the School of Tourism and Hospitality at Royal Roads University.