Analysis of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018 Event Life Cycle

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018, applying the event life cycle model to evaluate the event's various stages. It begins with an introduction to the games, highlighting its significance and the technological innovations employed. The report then delves into the event life cycle, investigating the idea, feasibility, bidding campaign, formation of the organizing committee, venue and event management planning, event branding, and event boosting strategies. Furthermore, it examines post-event management and tourism product development, providing insights into the impact of the Olympics on South Korea. The report concludes with an analysis of the country's plans for future development, addressing the challenges of post-Olympics sites and offering recommendations for more sustainable and economically viable event management strategies, including proper budgeting, bridging opportunity costs, and democratic decision-making. The report uses the available literature to support its analysis.

Event Life Cycle Application to
Peongchang’s Winter Olympics 2018

Table of Contents
Introduction of Pyeongchang winter Olympics 2018................................................................3
Investigate the formation, growth, staging stages in event life cycle model.............................4
South Korea’s plan for future development of event addressing stigma of ghost post
Olympics sites............................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

Introduction of Pyeongchang winter Olympics 2018
The winter Olympics held in Peongchang, South Korea in 2018, consists of international
participation in multitude of games and sports, which can be performed over snow and ice.
The opening ceremony of the games took place in 9th February 2018, celebrated with pomp
and grandeur, showing the potential the country has on hosting the ceremony. Seoul the
capital of South Korea had previously hosted the summer Olympics of 1988, however
Peongchang endured to improve its stance in hosting the event with wide variation from the
past (Derman et al.,2018). The city imbibed event management with new technology
innovation and attracted a multitude of people from all across the globe, to bring influx of
people, and to develop the tourism industry of the country. The winter Olympics are
generally hosted via bidding, and upon final choice of the venue and the country, 15 games
are hosted in the event. There are team events and individual participations within the event
and a wide number of sports are played down the slope. Skiing, freestyle skiing, biathlon,
Nordic combines, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping, are some events taking
place on slope. Over the ice, the most common sports include, bobsled, hockey, short tract,
curling, figure skating, speed skating, skeleton etc. there are more than 102 events within
these 15 sports, enabling the participant teams to win medals in the form of gold, silver and
bronze. There are many events, which are gender baised, and this can be seen from the
events, which were boosted in favour of girls in 2018 winter Olympics, to bring wider
participation from girls (Gaudette et al., 2017).

Investigate the formation, growth, staging stages in event life cycle
model
Figure: Event Life Cycle
Source: (Jones, 2017)
Utilising the event life cycle model, the Peongchag winter Olympics games 2018 has been
evaluated.
Idea
The idea of the winter Olympics to be hosted in South Korean City of Peongchang had been
widely accepted, after the country bid its hosting capacity in the international Olympics
board. The games in Asia are poorly developed, which instigated the idea of hosting winter
Olympics in Asian grounds in 2018. The main vision of the 2018 games was to improve new
horizons in winter sports, and to bring in developing industries, and improving the winter
sporting hub in the Gangwon province of Peongchang. Even though there are cases of budget
exceeding the total estimate in Olympics, the costs and benefits of hosting the games in
Peongchang was widely accepted. However costs spiral hike during the post events planning,
due to maintenance and certain problems in forecasting (Derman et al., 2018).
Feasibility

The country had already forecasted the budgets along with post Olympics games, with the
government figures. The feasibility of hosting the games in Peongchang was doubled, when
the gaming infrastructure cost of the winter Olympics estimated by South Korea showed the
lowest cost overrun than other counties. Moreover the infrastructure would again be utilised
for further preparations of the country’s athletes once the games were over. The figure-
staking rink would be re utilised as indoor gym for example, to reduce expenditure on the
country’s GDP (Gaudette et al., 2017). Moreover, after the winter Olympics would be held
the country could improve its budget and add $59.4 billion to its economy, adding to the
feasibility of hosting the games.
Bidding campaign
In 2010 and 2014 winter Olympics, the city had bid yet lost at final stages of selection.
Munich had bid in this round of winter Olympics but only received 25 votes, and Peongchang
was elected the most suitable bid by the IOC, in 2011 Durban, gaining 48 votes due to the
feasibility of hosting the event.
Formation of OC
On 9th February, the city hosted the opening ceremony of the games, by the president Moon
Jae-In. The overall mission of the ceremony was to instil harmony, passion, peace and
convergence on the mass. The games and venue along with event management and planning
were done with utilising augmented reality, AI and 5G technology providing features of 1218
shooting star drones, etc (Ahn, 2018).
Venue master plan/event management plan
The venue of the outdoor snow sports in Peongchang was heald in the nearby county,
whereas the skiing and slope events took place in JeongSeon, and indoor ice events in
Gangneung.the venues of the skiing events are Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre, Alpensia Cross-
Country Skiing Centre, Alpensia Sliding Centre, Alpensia Biathlon Centre and Yongpyong
Alpine Centre. Moreover, other outdoor events took place at Phoenix Snow Park and
Jeongseon Alpine Centre. In the coastal cluster eves occurred in Gangneung Curling Centre ,
Gangneung Hockey Centre , Gangneung Ice Arena and Gangneung Oval (Joo et al., 2017).
Event planning

The event was planned by a committee, which was set up after IOC’s announcement of
choosing Peongchan as the winter hosting venue. This led to the formation of the Peongchang
2018 Coordination Commission, consisting of people who would coordinate the whole event
along with planning the various steps within the event. The main chairperson of the
organizing committee of 2018 was Kim Jin Sun, who would also help in leading the
committee in event planning, performance and drawing out roadmaps. The first assembly of
planning was setup in 2011 called the Peongchang Organizing committee for 2018 Olympic
and Paralympics winter games called POCOG (Medium, 2019). The master plan of venue
selection, event hosting, event planning, managing the bits and pieces was chalked out by the
committee, and enabling construct in of the Olympic village. Moreover, they also planned to
create a high speed rail line which would connect Seoul and Peongchang (Joo et al., 2017).
The committee could finish the task by recruiting university students from the neighbouring
universities and colleges. This was done to enable spreading the knowledge of the games to
the outside masses.
Event branding
The main branding of the ceremony was done to envisage harmony within the local and
international games, and cultivate the gaming industry of South Korea along with other
countries in Asia. The main idea was promoted and branded through the Hangul Alphabet,
which was created by the kings of Korea’s past in order to spread literacy. The whole idea
was generated by imbibing Hangul and portraying Korea’s culture, norms and ethnicity to the
international guests and participating countries. The main idea was to reignite passion
through games and connecting with one another (Kim et al., 2015).
Event boosting
The event was boosted by following severely the theme of harmony, peace and
connectedness among the nations and imbibing technology, innovation, augmented reality
and improving the branding of the games. Moreover, the country also boosted the games
aspect by boosting the number of games for female participation, to widen the understanding
of women’s participation and freedom in performing.
Post event management
The post event management was generated through planning the post event games to be
played by the countries for improving the connectedness and harmony. This was projected to

display South Koreas extended hand to improve international relations with the other
countries.
Tourism product development
Figure: The tourism rate in thousands in South Korea during the event
Source: (Ahn, 2018)
It can be summarised that the tourism sector did not grow as was precedent during the
Olympics, which is evident from the fact that the towns appeared ghost like after the games
ended. Being one of the poorest counties in South Korea, the winter Olympics would enable
better tourism and booming state of retail in the city. However, huge maintenance costs were
face by the city as many parts of the city was demolishes, forests set ablaze to host the event.
The town looks deserted and still like the farming community even after the games were over
(Time, 2019).
South Korea’s plan for future development
The main recommendation while hosting an event management for an Olympics event is to
be realistic about the economy of the region tit is a myth that Olympics can increase

economic conditions, which might be not true to its words. However, the overall state of
Peongchang remains that of the farming community (Medium, 2019). This could have been
averted if the country had understood the economic impact that Olympics might have and be
realistic on the cost overruns. Proper budgeting is the first recommendation.
Evacuating houses, cutting down forests, using public money to subsidise the private
accommodations can bring in economic transitions, immediately after the event had taken
place. Proper event management could have enabled better place for hosting the event and
better venue selection, without the need for cutting down trees (Merkel and Kim, 2011). This
might have impact on global warming as the event hosted also utilised energy and impacted
carbon footprint. The second recommendation is to bridge in opportunity costs, while hosting
a mega event.
The event had created a crowding out effect, whereas it should have been the opposite. The
main reason of crowding out was the lack of spaces and proper infrastructure while hosting
the event, which should have been planned beforehand (Medium, 2019). The decision
making should have been more democratic and realistic while planning the event.

References
Ahn, Y.J., 2018. Recruitment of volunteers connected with sports mega-events: A case
study of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Journal of
destination marketing & management, 8, pp.194-203.
Derman, W., Blauwet, C., Webborn, N., Schwellnus, M., Van de Vliet, P. and
Lazarovski, D., 2018. Mitigating risk of injury in alpine skiing in the Pyeongchang 2018
Paralympic Winter Games: the time is now!.
Gaudette, M., Roult, R. and Lefebvre, S., 2017. Winter Olympic Games, cities, and
tourism: a systematic literature review in this domain. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 21(4),
pp.287-313.
Jones, M.L., 2017. Sustainable event management: A practical guide. Routledge.
Joo, Y.M., Bae, Y. 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., Choi, M. 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.
Medium. (2019). Post-Olympic Abandonment. [online] Available at:
https://medium.com/studiotmd/post-olympic-abandonment-d13783033e36 [Accessed 23
Sep. 2019].
Merkel, U. and Kim, M., 2011. Third time lucky!? PyeongChang's bid to host the 2018
Winter Olympics–politics, policy and practice. The International Journal of the History
of Sport, 28(16), pp.2365-2383.
Time. (2019). https://time.com. [online] Available at: https://time.com/4932670/2018-
winter-olympics-when-where/ [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].