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Abstract
The intense competition between places means that new and more differentiated marketing strategies are becoming increasingly important in order to attract visitors and other target groups. In order to be seen, gain positive media attention and put the place on the map many cities try to develop marketing concepts based on experiences, among other things. One such strategy used by many places is to focus on sports, including big events and arenas as well as different kinds of sports activities. Another present-day strategy is to highlight and commercialize ‘the different’, for instance homosexuals. An interesting phenomenon in this context is the merging of sports and homosexuals and the use of this as an economic development strategy. In this essay we analyse the homo sports event World Outgames as an outcome in the intersection between city marketing, the commercialization of sports and the commercialization of homo culture.
Notes
1 Ritt Bjerregaard, Lord Mayor, City of Copenhagen (www.copenhagen2009.org). Note: the first part of the title of our essay is a slogan used in official documents about the World Outgames event in Copenhagen.
2 LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and is the main target group for the event, even though we mainly discuss it as a homo sports event. The concepts used in this essay when discussing aspects of homo culture are homo, homosexuals and gay, which are used synonymously. We will not further discuss the concepts of LGBT persons and, furthermore, it is not the aim of this text to discuss and criticize ‘the to be or not to be’ of separate sports games for LGBT people.
3 See CitationKotler, Haider and Rein, Marketing Places; Ward, Selling Places.
4 See CitationKavaratzis and Ashworth, ‘City Branding’, 506–14; CitationKavaratzis and Ashworth, ‘Partners in Coffeeshops’, 16–25.
5 Kotler, Haider and Rein, Marketing Places.
6 See Hall, Urban geography; Kotler, Haider and Rein, Marketing Places; Ward, Selling Places.
7 CitationMorgan and Pritchard, ‘Meeting the Destination Branding Challenge’.
8 CitationEk and Hultman, Plats som product, 13–29.
9 See Kavaratzis and Ashworth, ‘City Branding’, 506–14.
10 CitationHall, Urban geography, 77–97; CitationJenkins, ‘Understanding and Measuring’, 1–15.
11 CitationGrönroos, Service Management; CitationPike, Destination Marketing Organisations.
12 See Book and Eskilsson, Stadens struktur – varför och hur?, 270; CitationChang and Yeoh, ‘New Asia – Singapore’, 101–15; CitationHoffman, ‘The Marketing of Diversity’, 286–99.
13 See CitationPine and Gilmore, The Experience Economy.
14 See CitationMossberg, Turisten i upplevelseindustrin.
15 See for example CitationHigham, ed., Sport Tourism Destinations.
16 CitationSmith, ‘Sporting a New Image?’
17 CitationSlack, The Commercialisation of Sport, xxii.
18 E. Bell and D. Campbell, ‘For the Love of Money’. The Observer, May 23, 1999.
19 For further discussions see CitationTurco, Riley and Swart, Sport Tourism; CitationHinch and Higham, Sport Tourism Development; Weed and Bull, Sports Tourism; CitationWeed, ‘Sports Tourism’; CitationGibson, ‘Towards an Understanding’.
20 CitationWeed and Bull, Sports Tourism, 37.
21 CitationRoberts, The Leisure Industries, 112.
22 Essex, ‘Post-event Legacies’.
23 CitationPreuss, Economics of Staging the Olympics.
24 See, for instance, CitationPreuss, ‘Lasting Effects’.
25 CitationHorne and Manzenreiter, ‘An Introduction’; Maguire, Global Sport.
26 See Hoffman, ‘The Marketing of Diversity’, 286–99.
27 Note: This is true for many countries. However, there are many places where homosexuality is still unacceptable and illegal, especially outside the Western world.
28 CitationBook and Eskilsson, ‘Homosex and the City’, 37–54.
29 CitationBergström and Erixon, ‘Rosa pengar’, 141–81.
30 See CitationLiljestrand, Made in Pride.
31 CitationRushbrook, ‘Cities, Queer Space’, 183–206; CitationWard , Selling Places.
32 CitationFlorida, The Rise of the Creative Class.
33 See CitationHughes, ‘Marketing Gay Tourism’, 152–63; CitationWood, ‘Think Pink!’, 107–10; CitationIvy, ‘Geographical Variation’, 338–55. It can always be discussed to what extent this general description is in accordance with real life. However, some surveys indicate that homosexuals (especially men) have a slightly better purchasing power than the average (see Bergström and Erixon, ‘Rosa pengar’, 141–81).
34 Gibson, ‘Towards an Understanding’.
35 See www.stockholmtown.com/gay.
36 CitationWoCo, ‘Discover the Gay-friendly Copenhagen’.
37 Pride is a celebration of the first time that the homo society struck back in order to defend its identity and culture (the so-called Stonewall riots), and the subsequent birth of the American gay movement. This took place in New York on 27–29 June 1969.
38 CitationBook and Eskilsson, ‘Homosex and the City’, 37–54; CitationJohnston, ‘(Other) Bodies and Tourism Studies’, 180–201.
39 CitationBuzinski and Zeigler, The Outsports Revolution, 3.
40 Note: In this figure (and the following discussion) we focus on different commercialization aspects. We do not mean, however, that the games are only about commercialization of the homo culture.
41 CitationDavidson, ‘The Necessity of Queer Shame’.
42 Interview with Uffe Elbœk, Administrative Director of Copenhagen Outgames, November 5, 2007 and e-mail correspondence January 16, 2008.
43 Interview with Uffe Elbœk, Administrative Director of Copenhagen Outgames, November 5, 2007 and e-mail correspondence January 16, 2008
44 www.glisa.org.
46 Interview with Elbœk.
47 Davidson, ‘The Necessity of Queer Shame’, 100.
48 Davidson, ‘The Necessity of Queer Shame’, 100.
49 Davidson, ‘The Necessity of Queer Shame’, 90.
50 See note 36.
51 Copenhagen 2009 World Outgames, The World is Coming Out in Copenhagen.
52 Interview with Elbœk.
53 E-mail correspondence with Thomas Klaerke, Manager of Sponsoring & Trade Marketing at SAS, January 29, 2008.
55 www.copenhagen2009.org/index.php?vis = supp
56 Copenhagen Citation2009 World Outgames, Statusreport.
57 Copenhagen Citation2009 World Outgames, Prospect, 2007.
58 Copenhagen 2009 World Outgames, Statusreport.
59 Interview with Martin Bender, Director of the event section of Wonderful Copenhagen, January 3, 2008.
60 See Preuss, Economics of Staging the Olympics.
61 CitationSilk and Amis, ‘Sport Tourism’.
62 CitationVan Ingen, ‘Geographies of Gender’, 210.
63 CitationGetz, Event Management, 16–17.
64 CitationGetz, Event Management
66 CitationChalip and Costa, ‘Sport Event Tourism’.
67 CitationChalip and Costa, ‘Sport Event Tourism’, 232.
68 CitationHarrison-Hill and Chalip, ‘Marketing Sport Tourism’, 303.
69 CitationHall, ‘Imaging, Tourism’, 176.