FAME model and Bournemouth Air Festival Case Study
Business Development
visit coastaltourismacademy.co.uk
NCTA
>> Many coastal destinations face challenges related to seasonality, destination branding and the need to attract new markets. Staging popular events has increasingly been seen as a solution, but event planning at destination level can be both ad hoc and experimental. 2
FAME Model & Bournemouth Air Festival Study
Executive Summary
This case study outlines the importance of a new approach to event planning through a FAME model – Framework for the Assessment of Major Events. The model was developed with funding from a Higher Education Fund Initiative where academics, (in this case Bournemouth University), collaborated with destination event organisers (Bournemouth Borough Council) to deliver a tool that could be used by tourist destinations nationwide. 3
visit coastaltourismacademy.co.uk
NCTA
Background
EVENT EVALUATION Event evaluation has traditionally comprised post event feedback mechanisms which are wideranging in their choice and scope . However local and national Governments have been offering financial support to special events but these often lack a robust framework and don’t justify the financial support given. This has created the need to consider pre-event evaluation forms. The perceived public benefit of an event compared with the supporting costs is often used as a justification of financial support. An allembracing evaluation tool is needed to help identify which events to support. There is also a need for consistent and transparent strategies if these events are to be underwritten by public money. Edinburgh, for example, has increasingly become known for its large event portfolio, this coupled with the town’s desire to host additional events, resulted in a growing need for some form of assessment tool. The city recognised that a strategic and more centralised approach was required together with a robust measurement tool if Edinburgh was to retain its competitive position in the global market. More professionalism was also required to cope with the growth of the Edinburgh Festival itself and also the increasing number of festival stakeholders.
In 2012, Tourism South East produced a new version of an impact assessment model. They claimed: ‘This model and toolkit finds ways in which events can minimise their negative impacts and maximise their positive impacts by measuring the economic, environmental, social and cultural factors involved in running a tourism event’. However, the disadvantage of this model is that it takes ‘a one size fits all’ approach and is not tailored to the needs and particular requirements of the destination in question. Tourism managers in highly competitive and unstable environments face the strategic issue of how to build an event portfolio and back this up with strong marketing whilst on limited budgets. Historically, most events have been based around cultural and religious celebrations. These have now evolved into part of the tourism portfolio as a wider tourism offer.. Others have developed as entirely new concepts to support the whole tourism offer in the destination. Whatever the origins, the requirements are the same in relation to event evaluation where public funds are being used. Stakeholder collaboration is therefore a key component in the development and marketing of events as tourist attractions. Events tourism has been described as ‘the planning, development and marketing of events as tourist attractions to maximise the number of tourists participating in events as either primary or secondary attractions’. 4
Business Improvement Districts
Case Study: Bournemouth Air Festival
5
visit coastaltourismacademy.co.uk
NCTA
Bournemouth Air Festival Research has shown that UK coastal resorts tend to follow an evolutionary six-stage cycle before the onset of possible stagnation and ultimate decline. Increasingly, local authorities are looking for events to nurture local community pride, improve the tourism offer and enhance tourism income, with minimal financial investment. Bournemouth has been a unitary authority since 1997, with autonomy from the local county council. Its distinctive location has ensured it remains a popular tourist destination as well as a regional centre for business and finance. Bournemouth has traditionally relied on three main industries, tourism, education and finance, but in 2008, the Bournemouth Tourism Management Board (BTMB), set out to ‘establish a major event to attract tourists to the area’. The Board took the decision to consider hosting an air festival. Members visited air festivals in Sunderland, Eastbourne and Southend to research the concept. One board member already had the advantage of strategic experience from hosting such an event. ‘Military and civil airshows in the UK remain second only to football in terms of spectator numbers’, making an air festival the perfect draw. In addition, the natural topography of Poole Bay, incorporating Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, offered the perfect setting for spectators from both the beach and cliff-tops. The first Air Festival in 2008 attracted 750k visitors, rising to more than 1.3 m people in 2009 and has drawn increasing numbers year on year, reaching a peak in 2014 with record attendances of nearly 850k on the Saturday and Sunday. The Air Festival lasts for four days, takes place on one beach and involves day and night entertainment including dusk
aerial displays, 16 hours of flying displays, pyrotechnics, live music and circus entertainers. The Festival generates more than £30million for the local economy. The Royal Navy, RAF and Army all bring vital assets to make the event bigger and better each year. The clear success of the Air Festival (through numbers of visitors and money invested locally into the economy) has served to ensure it is a facilitator for other similar events in the town. As a result, the BTMB plans to increase the destination’s event portfolio to include other hallmark events throughout the year. The combined experience, knowledge and networks gained from the successful organization of the Air Festival were considered key to the growth of related events. To foster a year-round programme of events to elevate the destination to a higher level, a more wide-ranging, stakeholder-driven strategy is required underpinned by the sharing of knowledge. This would create an evaluative framework for event assessment. This strategy would therefore contribute to a more holistic approach to the development of events and tourism in the destination. 6
FAME Model & Bournemouth Air Festival Study
Stakeholder Management According to stakeholder theory, the most important function of an event is to create value, i.e. some intrinsic worth, for all the stakeholders involved. However event managers firstly need to identify all the stakeholders involved and secondly how to communicate with them, as often there are competing interests of the different parties. (Harrison & Freeman, 1999 ). A ‘pure’ stakeholder is ‘anyone who can impact or be impacted by the operations of the organisation’. It is therefore vital to undertake a stakeholder audit. Key stakeholders within Bournemouth and surrounding area include Bournemouth Tourism Marketing Board; Bournemouth Area Hoteliers Association; Council Tourism/Events Team; Councillors with tourism portfolio; BH Live (operator of Council owned civic amenities); Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Town Centre Management Board; major town centre tourism businesses; Language Schools; neighbouring Tourism Organisations – e.g. the Dorset New Forest Partnership. All of these were invited to be part of the initial scoping exercise for the framework at the outset of the project. The FAME project itself was funded through a successful bid to the UK’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) under the umbrella Destination Development Programme (DDP); a source of funding aimed at facilitating academics to conduct applied and commercially relevant research. Bournemouth University is recognised as a key player in global tourism education and research, hosting one of the largest faculties of its kind in the world. Round table discussions with stakeholders were managed by an external Consultant and academic staff from Bournemouth University. The three stakeholder meetings had defined agendas. The primary objective of the stakeholder involvement was to ‘gather the perspectives of the key stakeholders on this new process for developing major events, and to achieve agreement to the utilisation of the proposed model and its future application’. 7
visit coastaltourismacademy.co.uk
NCTA
Results After successive meetings and several variations of the framework, followed by its testing, a FAME framework was developed to meet the tourism objectives from new event concepts. The new framework has been trialled on a new event in Bournemouth, the Wheels Festival which is the subject of a further case study.
An event strategy is a crucial element of this project as the framework needs to be developed in tandem with the strategic direction the destination is taking. Review of the destination’s core product and its competitive advantages must be key components when planning an events portfolio.
What made this project unique and inspirational was the knowledge gained for the destination as a whole through collaboration between practitioners, academics and consultants working side by side.
The components of an event framework will depend on the key objectives of the destination’s event strategy and will vary according to the various stakeholders. However, they should include some economic measures, for example the event’s marketing and PR exposure or the increase in visitors during shoulder months.
The FAME framework has now been extensively tested on four hallmark events organised in Bournemouth and the results have highlighted areas that need further development. It has pinpointed specific issues surrounding the future viability and financial underwriting of the events. This information will be used to support decisions around future event funding.
A ‘one size fits all’ framework, as offered by some destinations in the UK, will not meet the distinctive demands of tourism destinations as they often rely on their unique product offer. It is therefore imperative to ensure that an events portfolio is tailor-made to the requirements of the destination and its key tourism stakeholders.
8
FAME Model & Bournemouth Air Festival Study
What are the lessons learnt?
The main obstacle in the Air Festival project was managing the different needs and tensions from a wide-ranging group of stakeholders and also to ensure no one stakeholder dominated the proposals. Furthermore, being able to engage, and coordinate the same stakeholders over a period of time proved challenging. One gap in the original Air Festival FAME project was community involvement. Although elected councillors were involved, local community support is key. Small panels or focus groups would suffice, allowing representatives of the local community to become part of the planning process. Aligned to this must be good lines of two-way communication so any new developments are widely disseminated. For future consideration and to build other hallmark events into the portfolio, Bournemouth Borough Council’s events team now has a framework upon which to assess future events to meet the needs of stakeholders in line with the overall events strategy. The main learning from this project was the need to get stakeholders around the table to discuss and agree upon their collective needs from an events portfolio, whilst also keeping engagement on-going and pro-active. Other destinations wishing to adopt this framework, would need to design FAME to meet their specific requirements and strategic event vision. These will not always be the same from one destination to another as they will depend on who the key stakeholders are. However, the advantage of the FAME model over many other ‘off the shelf’ evaluation toolkits, is that it is tailored to suit the needs of each destination separately.
9
visit coastaltourismacademy.co.uk
NCTA
Recommendations Identify your key tourism/events stakeholders and engage them in the process from the outset by clearly defining the goals of the project. That way you can keep their interest in the project over the long term. Look at the core competences that your tourism product offers over and above the competition to give a competitive advantage. But be keen to ensure that this competitive advantage is sustainable and under regular review.
10
FAME Model & Bournemouth Air Festival Study
Top-tips .
1
Ensure you have an ‘outsider’ to facilitate the meetings who has no prior knowledge of the local stakeholder pressures.
with academics through their 2 Engage research backgrounds, networks and formal knowledge banks to support the industry practitioners. and engage with key stakeholders, 3 Identify having undertaken a comprehensive stakeholder audit which is unique to every destination. that what may work in one 4 Recognise destination does not mean it is instantly transferable to another. Each destination should ensure it has a unique, sustainable tourism offer. not let one stakeholder dominate the 5 Doinformation gathering meetings. 11
visit coastaltourismacademy.co.uk
NCTA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr Debbie Sadd is a Senior Academic in Leadership and Strategy in the Faculty of Management at Bournemouth University. She teaches Strategy and Leadership, and Marketing on both the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Events Programmes. She has also undertaken guest lectures within the Sports Management programme, both in the UK and overseas. Her research interests through her membership of the Centre for Sport and Event Research at Bournemouth University include the social impacts of events, urban regeneration opportunities from events, legacy planning and stakeholder engagement, in particular the opportunities gained from hosting the London 2012 Olympics.