Public–Private Collaboration in Event Management: An Exploratory Study of the Italian Sport Event 'Giro d’Italia'

This paper analyzes event management in the context of public-private sector collaboration. We explore interactions between tourism stakeholders and the event organizer. Our analysis is supported by a case study of the "Giro d'Italia", one of the most important and highly publicized European long- distance road races for professional cyclists. We gather empirical data using document analysis from focus groups and observations of public and private stakeholders in Termoli, a micro tourism destination of Southern Italy that hosted a stage of the 2011 event. We find that connectivity among stakeholders was low even though collaboration was an explicit strategy of the event organizers. The case emphasizes the importance of ensuring effective communication, learning and information dissemination. At the same time it illustrates the criticality of creating and sustaining a positive climate able to generate proactive relationships with stakeholders in the destination. Furthermore, we document a lack of knowledge and ability to extract benefits from hosting the event, as well as difficulties in managing the wide range of activities that such an event requires. We demonstrate that an event can serve as a support tool for community-building and economic development. However, as illustrated, success may be constrained by the local government's ability to organize the event and effectively engage the main local stakeholders while considering the intrinsic tourism characteristics of the destination. Finally the case study demonstrates how informal public-private relationships are important and needed to effectively complement formal structures and procedures in the hosting of events in micro-destinations.