Effects of 2008 Beijing Olympic Tourism Assignment

Effects of 2008 Beijing Olympic Tourism - Assignment Example The methodology to be applied for the present research is mainly based on the analysis of the literary sources related to the topic; another method used in the research is the analysis of the possible effects according to the separate aspects: political, economical, social and business. A strategy of place marketing and urban image construction examined in this paper is the staging of mega events and grand urban spectacles to attract world attention to cities. In the hope of hosting world class media events, public funds are squandered to turn cities into 'stage sets', using spectacular urbanism, monumental architecture, and modern infrastructure to erect images of progress, order and prosperity. Throughout the 1990s, a series of international events and grand political spectacles were held in Beijing to improve global perception of the city. These were accompanied by international marketing campaigns to advertise the city on the world scene and by major social, cultural, and physical beautification programmes intended to reform the city's human and material resources. As the example of Beijing will show, spectacles, festivals, and rituals are not solely directed to an international audience in the hope of attracting visitors and capital, but they also act as important tools of national representation by reviving national pride and unity and convincing local citizens of the beneficence of the system. Urban spectacles are also used to aestheticize local politics. As Wahab & Cooper rightly noted, aesthetics can easily turn an unsavoury political agenda into an intoxicating spectacle (2001). Urban spectacles and mega events can therefore have an important depoliticizing effect by draining politics out of the urban arena, thereby averting political controversy and dwarfing political defiance from the local population (Sinclair & Stabler, 1997, p. 90). Much like the 'bread and circuses' of ancient Rome, the spectacular displays that accompany the staging of important world events often act as instruments of popular pacification and social control. By distracting people from their everyday struggles, the spectacle lowers their social and political awareness and weakens their sense of criticism, thereby promoting complacency and alienation. In Beijing as elsewhere, the preparation for hosting mega events also calls for social beautification programmes, which include complex tactics of social disciplining, 'civilizing' reforms and a tightening of the social control