Game changers for sports events?

An action shot of two women grappling for the football. One is wearing yellow, the other white. Game changers for sports events.What will it take to make major sports events and associated tourism services more accessible? An Australian study seeks the answer to this question. Researchers used the 2015 FIFA Womens World Cup event in Canada as a case study to analyse the situation and to see what needs to be done. We need game changers.

The article is titled, “Inclusive by design: transformative services and sport-event accessibility”.  Access via Tandfonline or you can request a copy from the lead researcher Tracey Dixon on ResearchGate. You can find other posts on sport and recreation on this website.

Abstract

This paper examines the service dimensions required to be inclusive of people with access needs within a major-sport event context. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities seeks to counter disability discrimination and enable citizenship rights of people with disabilities, including access to goods and services, across all dimensions of social participation including major-sport events (e.g. Olympic and Paralympic Games, world cups in football, cricket and rugby union).

Providing for people with disability and access needs is also an emerging tourism focus with initiatives addressing accessible tourism included in the World Tourism Organizations mission and recent strategic destination plans. To enhance the understanding of service delivery for an accessible tourism market in a major-sport event context, a case study of the Vancouver Fan Zone for the FIFA Womens World Cup Canada, 2015 TM is analyzed through the lens of transformative services. From this analysis future research directions are identified to benefit those with access needs who wish to participate in major-sport events.

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