An Analysis of South Korea's Mega-Events and Their Enduring Legacies

This report provides a detailed analysis of the mega-events hosted by South Korea over the past three decades, examining their legacies and impact on the country's economic and social development. The report begins by defining mega-events and then proceeds to discuss four key events: the 1988 Summer Olympics, the 1993 World Expo, the 2002 FIFA World Cup (jointly hosted with Japan), and the 2018 Winter Olympics. Each event is analyzed in terms of its economic contributions, including revenue generation, infrastructural development, and tourism, as well as its impact on international recognition and relations. The report also considers the controversies and challenges associated with hosting these events, such as boycotts, disqualifications, and logistical complexities. The analysis highlights how these mega-events have served as catalysts for economic growth, enhanced Korea's global standing, and contributed to its infrastructural advancements. The report concludes by summarizing the overall legacies of these events, emphasizing their lasting impact on South Korea's development trajectory.

'Discuss the legacies of the
mega-events that Korea
has staged over the past 30
years

Table of Contents
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

The present report includes a detailed evaluation of mega events that have been organised
in the Korea, over the past 30 years. The mega events are those events which have been
organised in a country on large scale, and the organisation of such events is undertaken only one
time, due to its complex nature, these are not organised every time in a year or consecutive
years. A perfect example for mega events can be considered as Olympic games, which are taken
into consideration by a particular country, only once in a long period of time. Though, it is
organised every time within a year, but they are held in different parts of the world, every year.
There are four major mega events that have been conducted in the economy of South
Korea, over the last 30 years. The four major events that were held are, the Summer Olympics,
in the year 1988, the World Expo during the year 1993, the FIFA World Cup of 2002 and
recently, it has organised the Winter Olympics of 2018. These mega events that were organised
by Korea reflects its motives to be achieved regarding the economic growth as well as
development of concerned economy. The mega events undertaken by a economy generates a
high amount of revenue for the government of that country, which is further utilised for its
infrastructural and economic concentration of power, and thus, attain a remarkable position and
recognition in international markets.
The very first event to be discussed in this context is the Sumer Olympics that have been
organised in the year 1988, which is exactly around 30 years back. The organisation of this
Olympic was initially boycotted by many countries, including North Korea, as it requires a huge
investment to be made by concerned country, in the context of the same. Later on, South Korea
decided to undertake the responsibility of managing as well as organising Olympics for that year,
as a result of some concession that has been provided to them. Approximately, 8500 athletes
from around 159 countries or economies operating in the world have participated in the Olympic
games held by Korea, in the year 1988 (Solberg, 2017).
There were many major athletes that have participated in the Olympic games held in
Korea. Decision regarding the participation of athletes in the games or sport were left to the
governing bodies appointed for a particular sport. Ben Johnson, a resident of Canada, was
rejected by the appointed bodies to participate in the sport. He was an athlete champion for 100
metre race. Likewise, a total of 10 more athletes have been disqualified by the appointed
governing bodies of Summer Olympic games. The common reason or criteria generated on this
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disqualification of athletes was that they were found of using energy drugs in order to enhance
their performance.
The major games that were included in the 1988 Olympic sessions were tennis , which
was excluded during the Olympic session of 1924, tab;e tennis, team archery, long jump, high
jump, swimming, men's diving competition, distance races, etc. the conduction of these gamers
or sports resulted in winners from different parts of the universe (Ma and Kaplanidou, 2017).
The track events recorded winning of four men form Keynes, out of the six distance races that
have been organised. An American women athlete Florence Griffith Joyner won three gold
medals in the championship programme held in Korea. Jackie Joyner Kersee had won gold
medal each in heptathlon and long jump. The swimming competition held was won by Kristin
Otto, who was from East Germany. The diving competition that was held for men recorded
winning of a United States citizen named, Greg Louganis.
These mega event of sport that has been organised and held by South Korea, resulted in a
high level of recognition and prestige for the country in the international markets. This has also
led the concerned economy to develop a good relations with the governing bodies of other
countries. This championship programme that has been undertaken by the Korean country has
resulted an increase in its number of tourists in that year, as number of people from different
countries or regions or different parts of the world, visited South Korea to attain the Olympic
sports event held (Schnitzer and Kristiansen, 2017). The government of mentioned country has
earned a large amount of return on the investment that it has made on the mega Olympic event
held in it. Thus, the organised mega event created a positive result for the Korean economy and
leading to economic growth as well as development.
The Expo is an international festival, which undertakes exhibition programme. The Expo
festival of 1993 was held by Korean economy. It was a three month festival that was organised
from 7th of August 1993 to 7th of November 1993, in the Korean city of Daejeon. The theme of
exhibition that was held in the concerned country was to deal with the challenge of road
development, along with undertaking development of green as well as sustainable environment.
It was beneficial for Korea, as it led to infrastructural development of the economy, in the sense
of road construction activities, also, the environment of the country got improved as per the
adopted standard of green development in exhibition (Gruneau and Horne, 2016).
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The Expo 1993, was the first exhibition to be held in a developing country. The
exposition organised was segmented into three parts,viz. International zone, Corporate Zone and
Fun park zone. The number of nations that participated in the international zone of Expo
exhibition held was 109 countries. The corporate zone of exposition presented the best of Korean
community that are being provided by the companies operating in the economy to the potential
visitors or customers. A fun park zone was well-organised for the visitors in order to let them
enjoy the rides along with corporate and internat6ional zones, which deals with commercial
facts.
The venue where the Expo exhibition was held is still recognised as expo site and is
currently termed as “ Expo Science Park.” The Expo was held at the tower of great light, where
roller coasters were installed with a view of creating an enjoyment factor for the visitors. The
tower of light gave a nice as well as attractive look for the exposition held, which further
improved its effectiveness on the visitors, who visited the Expo exhibition, either I international
zone or corporate zone (Expo 1993, 2012).
The another big event which has generated a large amount of recognition and prestige for
Korea is the FIFA World Cup series that was held in Korea during the year 2002. This series
that was held in chorea/ Japan was the first series of FIFA that was held in Asia. This was jointly
held by Korea and Japan. FIFA is Federation of Football Association, which deals with
tournament the series for football games or sport amongst different countries in the world. The
FIFA hosted by Korea and Japan was the first kind of jointly held tournament in the world
(Horne and Whannel, 2016). The general secretary of Korea revealed that, FIFA was largely
interested to held its series of football in the regions of North Korea as well, but, as a result of
reserved as well as introvert nature of North Korean economy, this plan did not worked out. The
organisation of FIFA event in Asian countries had created some sort of inefficiencies on the part
of individuals residing in European nations, as they have to watch the football matches as per the
decided time horizons.
A qualifying or governing body was set up, in order to approve or qualify the teams
which would be allowed to perform in the series that had been held. According to the reports,
approximately 199 teams applied for qualifying the matches to play in the tournament of FIFA.
The list of qualified teams at FIFA World Cup held in Korea and japan included, China, Japan,
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Saudi Arabia, South Korea, South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tunisia, Brazil, Argentina,
Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, United States and Senegal The semi finals
that had been organised, recorded qualification of those teams, which were never selected
before, namely, teams from the countries of China, Ecuador, Senegal and Slovenia (Grix and
Houlihan, 2015).
In order to initiate an effective series of tournament, it is necessity on the part of
mentioned countries to ensure the arrangement activities to be implemented in most efficient
manner. In respect of achieving the same, both the concerned countries ensured provision of
venues for undertaking the FIFA series. Overall, about 10 venue were given by Korea and Japan.
The above mentioned teams were divided in group from A to H. The matches between teams
from A to D had been conducted in South Korea, whereas, series of match between nations
belonging to groups from E to H were held in Japan. Four matches were held in Daegu, Suwon,
Yokohama and Saitama stadiums, while, other matches held in the other 16 stadiums built in the
country.
The final match was held in Japan, which was played between Brazil and Germany.
Brazil won the match over Germany, which was the clear victory of Ronaldo, who played well
and brought the success to the team. This FIFA World Cup held in Korea and Japan both, has led
to an enormous number of tourists travelling to the concerned countries with a view of attending
the tournament. This has resulted beneficial results for both these mentioned economies, and has
also gained a god image in international markets (Kim and Kaplanidou, 2015).
The very recent mega event that has been held in Korea is the Winter Olympics, which
was organised in the year 2018. It was the 23rd Olympic series that was held in the world. The
series held was an international multi sport games tournament for winter, organised from 9th of
February to 25th of February. Before this, the summer Olympics of the year 1988 were held in
Korea, this was the first time, that Korea hosted a winter Olympics in its country, after 30 years
of time gap. There were 102 events held in the field of 15 games that were included the Olympic
tournament. Despite of contradictory and disputatious relations with south Korea, the north
Korean team participated in the Olympic session hosted by south Koreans (Park and Ok, 2018).
The preparation of winter Olympic tournament to be undertaken was started from August
of 7th in 2018. on this day, the international Olympic committee announced that the current year's
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Olympic sport tournament was formed with South Korea under the name, Pyeongchang 2018.
The announcement stated that, the organising committee for sports tournament to be hosted was
headed by Jin-sun.
The venues for the tournaments were decided as per the climatic conditions of a
particular place and the requirements of sports regarding the weather conditions. The outdoor
events of snow were held in Pyeongchang, whereas the indoor events were held in the country of
Gangneung. Along with indoor and outdoor snow games, the combined games were held in the
country of Jeongseon. The games which were held in Pyeongchang included, jumping,
snowboarding, cross country skiing, alpine skiing, etc. the outdoor snow games hosted by the
Korea in the country of Gangneung are ice hockey, curling, long track speed skating, short track
speed skating, figure skating, women's ice skating competition.
The total number of countries that were qualified for the winter Olympic sessions of
2018 were around 92, which included a number of athletes participating in the tournament from
different parts of the world. The games or sports were scheduled as per their time consumption
of activities to be performed. Thus, the skating events for American participants were decided to
be hosted in the morning sessions, as it would enable the population of US to have access to the
conduction of game series (Müller, 2015).
The winter Olympic games that have been recently held in south Korea has resulted in
reducing the tension as well as conflict between north and south Korea, which has been
prevailing since years between both of them. As a result of this, north Korea also participated in
the Olympic tournament that has been undertaken. The ice hockey team that participated in the
women's ice hockey competition, was a unified team, i.e. it represented north as well as south
Korea as a team. This is a clear indication of conflict that has been arise between both the
counties post the world war II gas ended.
These four are the major mega events that have been conducted by Korean economy. It
can be analysed from the report that all the mega events that have been conducted had a time gap
between its organisation in the country. The first mega event discussed in this report was held in
the year 1988, which was followed by an Expo festival in the year 1993, FIFA World Cup
hosted in the year 2002 and the winter Olympic session for the year 2018 (Joo and Kassens-
Noor, 2017). This clearly indicates the previously discussed fact that, mega events are not an
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annual activity to be considered by the concerned economies. These activities are taken into
consideration only after a long time interval.
Hosting of mega events requires the concerned country to undertake a huge amount of
investment on infrastructure facilities such as accommodation, travelling, visiting, etc. of
different people from different parts of the world. The tourists visiting the country may be
participators, their families or other individuals who came for attending the event hosted by the
country. These investments made generates a huge amount of return as well for the concerned
economy, in monetary as well as non monetary terms. The returns in monetary terms include the
revenue generated from the mega events hosted, whereas, the non monetary returns refers to the
recognition as well as goodwill that has been earned by the Korean economy in the national as
well as international market, as result of its legacy maintained under mega events (Horne, 2015).
Although, all the events that have been conducted by South Korea has resulted in
beneficial results for that economy, the major influential role in the context of Korean growth
and developmental activities was proved to be of the FIFA World Cup that has been hosted by
the country. It changed the reputation of the country in a positive way in international market, as
it gained more recognition as well as power. Also, the 2018's Winter Olympics hosted by the
mentioned nation, proved to be influential, as it has narrowed the prevailing gap and conflict
between North and South Korea.
The present report concludes detailed explanation about the mega events that have been
undertaken in the Korean nation. The major four events have been hosted in the past 30 years,
the effectiveness of which can be felt by the legacy that have been made by the concerned
economy, in the context of holding events and managing it more effectively as well as
efficiently. Also, the country has resulted in its growth and developmental activities, as a result
of revenue generated from tourism attracted for these events held.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Grix, J. and Houlihan, B., 2015. Interrogating states’ soft power strategies: a case study of sports
mega-events in Brazil and the UK. Global society. 29(3). pp.463-479.
Gruneau, R. and Horne, J., 2016. Mega-events and globalization: a critical introduction. op. cit,
pp.1-28.
Horne, J. and Whannel, G., 2016. Understanding the olympics. Routledge.
Horne, J., 2015. Assessing the sociology of sport: On sports mega-events and capitalist
modernity. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 50(4-5). pp.466-471.
Joo, Y. M. and Kassens-Noor, E., 2017. Mega-events and mega-ambitions: South Korea’s rise
and the strategic use of the big four events. In Mega-Events and Mega-Ambitions: South
Korea’s Rise and the Strategic Use of the Big Four Events (pp. 1-22). Palgrave Pivot,
London.
Kim, A. and Kaplanidou, K., 2015. The role of media in enhancing people’s perception of
hosting a mega sport event: the case of pyeongchang’s winter olympics bids. International
Journal of Sport Communication. 8(1). pp.68-86.
Ma, S. C. and Kaplanidou, K. K., 2017. Examining the Importance of Legacy Outcomes of
Major Sport Events for Host City Residents’ Quality of Life. Applied Research in Quality
of Life. 12(4). pp.903-923.
Müller, M., 2015. The mega-event syndrome: Why so much goes wrong in mega-event planning
and what to do about it. Journal of the American Planning Association. 81(1). pp.6-17.
Park, K. and Ok, G., 2018. 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Games and the South Korean
Political Intention. In The Palgrave Handbook of Paralympic Studies (pp. 555-577).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Schnitzer, M. and Kristiansen, E., 2017. Youth multi-sport events in Austria: tourism strategy or
just a coincidence?. Journal of Sport & Tourism. 21(3). pp.179-199.
Solberg, H. A., 2017. 3 Mega events. Legacies and Mega Events: Fact or Fairy Tales?.
Online
Expo 1993. 2012 [online] Available through <https://2012expo.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/a-
world-festival-hosted-by-korea-daejeon-expo-93/>.
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