Media representations of cultural and sports festivals, the marketing of place image and local economic

During the 1980s and 1990s energetic image enhancement and promotional campaigns have been an almost ubiquitous characteristic of different localities throughout the world, with the enhancement and promotion of place image now being seen as a vital part of economic development strategies. One way in which places can be promoted is through the attraction of high profile festivals and events as the coverage of these events disseminates images of place throughout the local, national and international media, potentially reaching a far greater number and range of audiences than Conventional promotional campaigns would do. This coverage reaches a number of discrete audiences and has tangible and intangible impacts. These include potential investors whose decisions may be influenced by the images of the location that they receive through the media and the local business community who might be convinced that the economic strategies of the local authority have been successful. The coverage of these events, then, is crucial in selling places to both internal and external audiences. Whilst much attention has been paid to the place promotion campaigns of local authorities, as yet there has been no attention paid to the impacts of the media coverage of festivals and events on the promotion of place images. This thesis draws upon a case study of four festivals in Cheltenham, England and evaluates the contribution of their coverage in the national media to the perception and development of place. This is achieved by a two stage process: Firstly, an analysis of the content of the media coverage of the selected festivals is undertaken to understand the amount and nature of the coverage. Secondly, the local business community are used as a group of key economic actors to examine their images of Cheltenham, the mechanisms that are important in the construction of image and to identify and assess the impacts that the media coverage of Cheltenham's festivals has on economic development. The results make a key contribution to the understanding of the use of the media in the construction of images of place and also in identifying the positive and negative impacts that the media coverage of festivals can have upon a host location