Destinationsutveckling i samband med folkliga motionslopp

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study, written in Swedish, is to study two of the most popular sportsevents in Sweden; Vasaloppet and Göteborgsvarvet (Gothenburg Half Marathon) and theaffect the events has on the host destinations and also how the organizers use the destinationsfor their development.The study also shows how municipalities and public authorities connected to destinationdevelopment handles these events for their own purpose in their destination marketing todevelop their destination and improve the destination image.To achieve the purpose of the study, the following research questions has been formulated:“How does the municipality work with these events to improve the development of thedestination?” and “How does Vasaloppet and Göteborgsvarvet affect the destinations and howdoes the race events use their destination for their development?”Big events related to tourism is often organized by independent actors without any supportfrom the government controlled authorities. Despite that, the municipality or governmentcontrolled organizations will always have an an impact on these big events since they providethe essential infrastructure, transport, etc.One of the tools used in this study is semi structured interviews with 19 different, for thecases, relevant people, including the leaders within the organizing committees of Vasaloppetand Göteborgsvarvet. Interviews has also been made with the municipalities and otherpartners to the organizers. As a complement to these interviews, we have also interviewed afew participants from the two races. The study is also complemented with media articles andother previous research in the subject.The study identifies a strong dependency between the organizers and destinations that goesboth ways. The conclusion clearly shows the needs of cooperation and support between all theinvolved organizations to be able to achieve the best possible result and development. Thestudy reveals how all the involved organizations cooperates and works in relation to eachother and what could be done in other ways to optimize the best conditions for development.