El impacto cultural y social de los eventos celebrados en destinos turísticos. La percepción desde el punto de vista de los organizadores

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between the touristification of events taking place at mature tourist destinations and the sociocultural impact they cause in the local community. To this aim these events were classified according to their degree of involvement in tourism and event managers were surveyed about their potential impact. Data was gathered by means of a survey carried out with event organizers and is based on a sample of 263 cases. We measured the correlation between different items of social and cultural impact on the local community and five types of events classified according to presence or absence of tourism-oriented goals. The main result obtained is the confirmation of a significant relationship between sociocultural impact and the touristification level of events. The celebration of tourist festivals and events in Catalan tourist destinations has a positive impact on sense of place, place identity and community well-being. Positive effects on local identity obtain particularly high values. In our view, this is related to the way social actors in tourist destinations build the place identity by including tourist events as part of their image, given that these events often base their narratives on local identity and history.