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Abstract
The growth of the events industry will continue to place increasing demands on the environmental and social resource base upon which events depend. Although Local Authorities have a long-running commitment to achieving sustainable development, there exist many gaps in relation to its application within the context of planning for events management. In the current event environment there is a fundamental need for a sustainable approach to planning for events by Local Authorities, given their often statutory responsibility to license events and to facilitate and regulate the process of planning for large-scale outdoor public events. This research employed a multi-methodological approach utilising a content analysis of Local Authority event management plans and interviews with Local Authority event personnel. The findings report significantly low levels of Local Authority sustainable planning for event management in Ireland and point to the need for a consistent, transparent and state-wide sustainable approach to planning for events in Ireland. The lessons learned from this study may have implications for event destinations at international level. This study suggests a possible solution for Local Authorities to effectively lay the foundation for a transition towards greater levels of sustainable planning for events management going forward.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Kelly Maguire
Dr. Kelly Maguire is a senior Lecturer in International Tourism Management and Events Management at Liverpool John Moore’s University (L1 2UA). Her doctoral research study provided the first nationwide baseline study on Local Authority sustainable planning for events management in Ireland (2018).
She has worked with Local Authorities in planning large-scale outdoor public events in Ireland and has worked as an independent research consultant in technologies for tourism and travel apps. She has acted as co-principal investigator on industry research funded by the National Tourism Development Authority of Ireland.
Her research interests include sustainable planning for events and tourism, environmental impacts of events/tourism, socio-cultural impacts of events/tourism, economic impacts of events/tourism, Local Authority planning for events, event licensing and regulatory systems of events and community engagement in drive tourism on the Wild Atlantic Way.