Destination Brand-Building and Major Sporting Events. The Case of Poland and the UEFA Euro 2012

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Sport - Sport Economics, Sport Management, grade: 1,3, European Business School London / Regent's College, course: EVM6A5- Contemporary Issues in Event Management, language: English, abstract: This report examines how Poland capitalised on the opportunities associated with the country's co-hosting of the UEFA EURO 2012 with regards to building a destination brand and identifies strategies that may be implemented in order to further establish and strengthen this brand. In the course of this report the '6Ts of creative destination reputation' are applied to Poland specifically in the context of the country's co-hosting of a major international football event in 2012. It also gives some historical background on the development of the tourism sector in Poland in the last decades and examines and analyses both outcomes of the UEFA 2012 and the associated destination brand-building campaign 'Feel Invited' for the country. Poland's co-hosting of the EURO 2012 has provided the local Destination Marketing Organisation with opportunities to be exploited in terms of building competitive destination brand for the country. This report explores how these opportunities were exploited, taking into account the image of Poland that was held within its target markets for international tourism before and after the event. Finally, it assesses the success of the brand-building initiative during EURO 2012 and gives recommendations with regards to possible future challenges in destination branding the Polish Tourism Organisation should be aware of, as well as how this awareness may influence upcoming campaigns.