Environmental Concerns and Policies in the Beijing Olympic Games

Abstract

In recent years, sustainable issues have become an interesting topic in event tourism studies. Mega events such as the Olympic Games can hardly claim to be environmentally friendly due to its large infrastructure construction to meet a short term demands. However when the environmental impacts become an important issue in the management of the Olympic Games, it turns to be an important dimension in this mega event. Greening was selected as one of the strategies during the bidding for the Beijing Olympic Games. In the implementation stage, measures were taken to promote the green issues and improve the environment in Beijing such as public campaign, reduction of air pollution, greening of the city and restructure of the urban economy. This study attempts to investigate the process of implementing the environmental policy in the Beijing Olympic Games, local understanding of the greening and the impacts of the greening theme in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and its potential influences on the other mega events in China. The short term and long term environmental impacts are discussed. The paper concludes that it is possible to bring some of the environmental improvements by introducing the green theme. But still mega environment can hardly adjust to the environmental impacts. However, the environmental issues caused by the mage events are still substantial.