Sport Tourism and the Discourse of Social Cohesion at the World Pond Hockey Championship Event

Canada's World Pond Hockey Championship (WPHC) event is examined to show how the concept “social cohesion” functions as a discourse through which athletes, organizers and local residents articulate their experience of the event. No attempt is made to measure levels of social cohesion in the study community as an empirical fact. Instead, the authors' objective is to show how a distinctive community has been created around this sport-based tourism event, one with its own particular discourse of social cohesion. The authors' analysis is based on data collected through non-participant observation and dozens of semi-structured and unstructured interviews at the 2007 World Pond Hockey Championship event and through supplementary interviews and document analysis (press coverage, printed tourism promotional materials) activities conducted over the following four years, until mid-2011. the authors' findings show how a distinctive social community has been created around this sport-based tourism event, one with its own particular discourse of social cohesion.