Brand image legacies of the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM: a long-term assessment

Abstract

There has been limited research on brand legacies of the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM; hence, this research examined brand image legacies of this tournament in the long run in South Africa in relation to determining the changes in international football tourists’ perceptions of South Africa as result of hosting this event. A quantitative methodology was employed to survey 391 international football tourists at fan parks and stadium precincts in five metropolitan cities in France during the 2016 UEFA European Championship, using a spatially based systematic sampling technique. The findings reveal statistically significant differences in most aspects between football tourists’ perceptions prior to, and six years after, the tournament. International football tourists’ perceptions changed positively six years after the event, including those features that were highlighted as major concerns prior to the tournament. The key findings of this study have a wider applicability to sport mega-events legacy research and body of knowledge.

Keywords:

• 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM
• brand image legacy
• football tourist
• perception
• sport mega-event

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Corrie Uys, the CPUT statistician, for her assistance in analysing data for this study and all the participants at the UEFA European Championship who gave freely of their time to assist us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.