Elite Sport for Elite Destinations: The Arabization of Sport Events Tourism

Sport events have always attracted the attention of international literature presenting measurable and nonmeasurable impacts deriving from political decisions, power demonstration, resource allocation, post-event planning, and future development. Hosting a large sport event was always a decision based on sport passion, local pride, and national vision for regeneration and image creation. However, unmeasurable benefits, mismanaged massive sport venues left behind, and exhausted local resources created mistrust in bidding for mega events among western countries. The shift of events’ hosting to the emerging and developing countries seems to create a new hosting environment for sport organizations seeking credible organizers to safeguard their property but most interestingly presents a new elite destination making platform. The present study through factoring qualitative data deriving from strategic documents, published visions and reports, as well as in-depth literature review examines the mechanism behind the creation of new elite sporting destinations in the Middle East that evidently realizes the capability of sport events to create identity and certain image, leading to a quality tourism offer for the international clientele. The findings provide evidence that hosting the most prestigious sporting events contributes to the construction of an elite local profile and the development of a new sport tourism offering supported by unparalleled tourism infrastructure. Whether this will cause a monopolization of elite sport events becomes a core challenge at the present study, forecasting worldwide travel effects and turning page sport and tourism developments.