A Holistic Approach to Event Portfolios Towards Achieving Strategic Leveraging Objectives: The Case of Cape Town in South Africa

Abstract

This chapter advances the discourse on event leveraging by examining the strategic operations of all-inclusive events that make up event portfolios in order to determine their collective means for achieving leveraging objectives. This shifts the common focus of studying single event types towards a focus on a holistic approach to events within a set portfolio. Cape Town, a South African city with an existing event portfolio was used as a case study. A qualitative research design was adopted where secondary data from prime documentary sources including annual reports were used to supplement and support in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with key industry stakeholders involved in sports and destination branding organisations. A thematic review of the results revealed the importance of a balanced event portfolio that promotes cohesion and synergy of events of all scopes and sizes for the realisation of wide-ranging leveraging benefits. The application of a conceptual model for event leveraging within the developing destination context revealed the inclusion of additional strategic objectives to what is generally advocated through event leveraging practice.