Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Events Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011. / In recent years, events have shown rapid growth as types of attraction within destinations, with such events creating a favourable image of a host destination, expanding the traditional tourist season, spreading tourist demand more evenly through an area and attracting foreign and domestic visitors (Keyser, 2002:18). As such, events are starting to become an established element and major part of tourism growth and marketing strategies. East London (in the Eastern Cape, South Africa) has hosted a number of successful events (Buffalo City Tourism, 2010) however no known social impact studies related to the community of East London are known to have been conducted. The purpose of this study was to address this gap and to evaluate the social impacts of events tourism on the East London community. The overall research question in this study was, What are the socio-cultural impacts of events tourism on East London? This was a quantitative study that utilised a survey to collect the data. The sampling frame was the community at the Spec-Savers Ironman South Africa Triathlon 2010 held in East London. Potential participants were included in the sample through utilising a random sampling method. The research instrument consisted of four sections, namely demographic profiling (age, gender, race, marital status, education and income), overall event impact perceptions, reasons for spectator participation, and the social impact perceptions of the respondents. The event attendees were interviewed. No incentive was offered for participation, and participants were assured of the confidentiality of their responses.

M. Tech. Business Administration / Sport tourism events in recent years have become one of the fastest-growing types of tourism attractions globally. For the aim of this study, it is important to understand spending patterns, socio-economic characteristics and activities that relate to the sport tourist to have a greater understanding of the impact of these events on the host community. The sport tourism event spectator is a consumer who, through a process of decision making, obtains certain goods and services from the sport tourism event for personal consumption. Sport tourism event leverage begins by encouraging visitor spending and by retaining visitor expenditure within the host community, which can be achieved by fostering spending during the sport tourism event and by lengthening visitor stays The purpose of this research study was to determine the spending patterns and expectations of sport tourism event spectators. This research study was exploratory to determine spectator spending patterns, demands and possible economic impacts that a sport event being hosted at Loftus Versveld will have on shareholders involved.