Beijing residents' perceptions and attitudes towards the 2008 Olympic Games and future tourism development

Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate Beijing residents’ perceptions of the impacts of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and their attitudes toward future tourism development in Beijing. This research was conducted in Beijing over the months of November and December 2008, three months after the end of the Olympic Games. It employed a quantitative research methodology of an interviewer-completed intercept survey conducted with 300 respondents in Jinger Community, Weishengbu Community, and Jiaodajiayun Community of the Haidian District. Academic literature and information from sources such as government reports and local and international media reports regarding the Beijing Olympic Games was gathered and analysed by the researcher. Respondents’ perceptions of the impacts of the Beijing Olympic Games were compared with the impacts stated in previous studies and the reports of government and media in this study. Social exchange theory (1992) and Zhou and Ap’s (2009) typology of Chinese residents of a mega event host community were applied in this research to analyse and to explain the differences among respondents’ attitudes towards the impacts of the Beijing Olympic Games. The results of this research found that respondents perceived the Olympic Games had brought both positive and negative economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts to them and to the host community. In particular, they perceived stronger positive and negative socio-cultural impacts of the Olympic Games than other impacts. Respondents’ perceptions of the impacts of the Olympic Games were influenced by their socio-demographic and other characteristics, such as age, highest educational level, involvement in the Olympic Games, community attachment and their proximity to the Birds Nest Stadium. For example, senior respondents, respondents with lower education level and respondents with a longer residence in Beijing tended to hold more positive perceptions of the Games. In addition, respondents who were involved in the Games tended to perceive more negative socio-cultural and environmental impacts of the event; while respondents who lived close to the Birds Nest Stadium tended to perceive more positive economic benefits but also a rise of cost of living by hosting the Olympic Games. This research fits with social exchange theory. Respondents were supportive for future tourism development in general as their attitudes towards the impacts of the Olympic Games were positive overall. In addition, this study found that respondents who perceived more positive impacts of the Games, such as senior respondents and respondents with a longer residence in Beijing, were more supportive for future tourism development in the city. Although this research found that respondents tended to hold positive attitudes towards the impacts of the Olympic Games in general, these respondents perceived fewer positive impacts and more negative impacts of the Olympic Games than those perceived impacts by respondents interviewed in Zhou and Ap’s (2009) research, which examined Beijing residents’ perceptions of the impacts of the Olympic Games two years before the event was held. The difference suggests that the actual Olympic Games impacts might not match the expectation of the local residents. In addition, this research found that 46 per cent of the respondents in this study agreed that the Olympic Games had caused resentments among some group of residents. This implies that local residents might still have negative perceptions of the impacts of the Games but chose not to express their opinions or to express those perceived negative impacts in a more moderate manner within the Chinese Communist society. This research has contributed both theoretical and practical benefits and insights to the literature. It supplements the deficiency of the literature of community-based mega event impacts in China, where residents’ opinions are rarely investigated.