Book chapter
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and events: A missed opportunity?
The Routledge Handbook of Events and Sustainability, pp.17-29
Routledge, 1st
2024
Metrics
1 Record Views
Abstract
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which focuses on a global approach to people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. There are 17 SDGs and while research has considered the relationship between the SDGs and tourism, the contributions of events and festivals to achieving the SDGs have not been fully investigated. This chapter argues that events can contribute to the SDGs in two main ways. First, events bring tourists to a destination, and thus events can be said to contribute to the SDGs through tourism (for example through positive economic impacts and job creation in the tourism and hospitality sectors). Second, hosting and staging events contributes to the achievement of the SDGs through the beneficial impacts of events beyond tourism (e.g., through enhancing quality of life and well-being, through business development in the logistics and meeting planning industries, and through the legacy provisions of infrastructure and sporting facilities that result from hosting mega events). However, as yet, the majority of academic research has failed to make the contribution of events to the SDGs explicit, a fact that is hindering our understanding of this important topic. This chapter calls for more research to explore and navigate this complex relationship.
Details
- Title
- The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and events: A missed opportunity?
- Creators
- Judith Mair
- Contributors
- Julie Whitfield (Editor) - Bournemouth UniversityMary Beth Gouthro (Editor) - Bournemouth UniversityMiguel Moital (Editor) - Bournemouth University
- Publication Details
- The Routledge Handbook of Events and Sustainability, pp.17-29
- Publisher
- Routledge; London
- Edition
- 1st
- Number of pages
- 13
- Identifiers
- 991013310016702368
- Copyright
- © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Julie Whitfield, Mary Beth Gouthro and Miguel Moital; individual chapters, the contributors
- Academic Unit
- Office of the PVC (Academic Innovation)
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter