Realising the goals of event leveraging: The tourism and hospitality SME perspective

Event leveraging, particularly by local businesses, is important not only to local businesses themselves for their benefits but also to event tourists and host community. However, the understanding of businesses' broad strategic planning of event leveraging is still limited. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the goals and practices of tourism and hospitality small and medium enterprises' (THSMEs) event leveraging to understand event leveraging as part of a wider business strategy, particularly focusing on small scale events and festivals held in small cities or regional areas. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with owners and managers of THSMEs based in three different business communities. This study finds that the goals of THSMEs’ event leveraging are not limited to financial interests, and businesses pursue event leveraging for diverse goals. Four specific goals of THSMEs in event leveraging are identified, namely access to new market, building stronger links with existing customers, staff rewards and development, and enhancement of community relations. Leveraging practices undertaken by local THSMEs for each goal are also identified. Based on the study findings, practical recommendations for THSMEs to engage in event leveraging in more actively and diverse ways are provided.