Analysis of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics: A Case Study (HAT301)

This case study analyzes the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, examining its event life cycle from formation, growth, and staging. The analysis details the initial bidding process, infrastructure development, and the execution of the games, including the opening ceremony and participation of numerous countries in various events. The study further provides recommendations for future development, focusing on sustainability and addressing stakeholder concerns. These include converting venues into tourist destinations, promoting the "New Horizon" theme for post-event possibilities, exploring joint ventures, and creating year-round schedules to ensure economic gains. The recommendations emphasize the importance of efficient management, marketing, and the potential of Pyeongchang as a sports training facility.

THE ANALYSIS OF EVENT LIFE CYCLE STAGES: PYEONGCHANG WINTER
OLYMPICS, 2018
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The hosting of any mega event requires dedicated efforts with profound responsibility
and includes the mobilization of huge resources in terms of manpower, financial and regional
resources. The event management of a mega event, such as the Olympic Games requires
adequate planning, credibility and capability along with adequate aid from the government of the
hosting nation and the International Olympic Association. In order to understand the event life
cycle of a mega event we will look into the various stages of the Winter Olympic Games held at
Pyeongchang, South Korea and will analyse the event through the stages of formation, growth
and staging or hosting of the event. The following sections will analyse these developments
through critical analysis of the various stages.
The formation stage of the Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics:
The initiation to host the event started with the bidding for the event long back in 2010.
After the failure in the first the attempt, Pyeongchang had bid for hosting the event again in 2014
but lost the vote to Sochi, Russia. The Pyeongchang had started bidding for hosting the Winter
Olympic Games only to be defeated by Vancouver and Sochi in the voting rounds. The
formation stages of the event included steps that included bidding for the hosting of the event.
Pyeongchang was elected in the voting at the 123rd IOC meeting held at Durban (International
Olympic Committee 2019). The formation of the Event started right from the first bidding that
Pyeongchang made and simultaneous preparations were on to promote Pyeongchang as the host
for the winter Olympic games. The origin of the Pyeongchang’s ambitious plan to win the
hosting bid started from 1996 and the then governor Choi Gak-gyu, believed that hosting such a

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mega event would earn South Korea an international importance and simultaneously develop the
Kangwon province (Merkel & Kim 2011, p.2371). After failing in the first two attempts the
Korean Government passed a resolution and restructured the organizing committee and after the
approval of the regional committee the “Resolution for the 2018 winter Olympic Bidding” on
July 19, 2007, to bid for their third attempt which brought success for PyeongChang (Merkel &
Kim 2011, p. 2376). With the win for hosting the event, South Korea now had the legacy of
hosting three major events within two decades, the 1998 Summer Olympics in Seoul, The Soccer
World Cup in 2002 together with Japan and the most desired 2018 Winter Olympic Games
(PEOPLE.com 2019).
The growth stage of the Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics
The growth stage included preparations for the Olympic Games, which had already
started since their first bidding. The preparations included development infrastructure and
resources to host such a major event (International Olympic Committee, 2019). During their
second bidding, the Fédération Internationale de Ski or the FSI had supported Pyeongchang’s bid
owing to their satisfaction with the infrastructure and venues that matched IOC standards. The
Olympic Games at Pyeongchang is known to be a popular hiking and a skiing location situated
100 miles from Seoul. The Olympic Village was constructed in a manner that all the twelve
venues for the Games were all situated within the 30 minute drive from the stadium facilitates
easy accessibility. Pyeongchang already had six of the twelve venues and six more were
developed for the Games. According to the official website of the Pyeongchang, almost 80% of
the athletes can reach to the venues within 10 minutes from the village (News.bbc.co.uk 2019).
The hardware management and development had already been completed months prior to the
preparation (Rowe 2018, p. 5). The testing phase and fabrication was completed well ahead of

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time. As per the records given in an interview to the PEOPLE, a local daily, Nancy Park stated
that they are ever ready to host the games and are sure and confident with the games being
organized in the most compact and organized manner (PEOPLE.com 2019). A total of 23,000
volunteers had been recruited for the games and that gives an account of the scale of the
preparation (Ahn 2018, p.3). Along with all of the preparations transport and communication
infrastructures are also being developed. A dedicated high speed rail was constructed to connect
Seoul with the Pyeongchang and had started construction in June 2012.
The staging of the Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympic
The hosting of the Olympics Games saw a colorful opening ceremony and was noted
from the speeches of the president of the Olympic association of Korea. As he stated that this is
an honour for the Korean people and for the continent of Asia. According to BOA chairman
Colin Moynihan "As the first Asian city outside of Japan to host the winter Games, Pyeongchang
will bring the excitement of the winter Olympics to a new audience. We look forward to what we
are sure will be excellently organized Games that make Asia and the Olympic Movement proud,"
The Games was hosted from 9th of February and extended till 25th February. A total of 92
countries participated in over 100 events (International Olympic Committee 2019). The medal
tallies were pretty interesting breaking of previous records and several events saw a mixed event
comprising of male and female athletes in curling and speed skating and Alpine Skiing.
Recommendation
Being a task of enormous responsibilities and multiple stakeholder involvement, the
Olympic Games require precise execution and organisation and Pyeongchang was not an
exception. The cost of the Olympic Games can be staggering and Pyeongchang could have found
credible ways to answer these. The implementation of the facilities after the games puts a serious

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question and the Pyeongchang could have managed that extra cost of constructing the venues by
converting the venues into tourist destinations (Lee 2016, p.1421-1422). The theme of the 2018
Winter Olympic “New Horizon” should have been devised in away to create possibilities even
after the conclusion of the Games. The possibilities of initiating a joint team with North Korea
could have extended the political bonding between the two nations. A combined team would
have brought in political gains for the two nations. One of the major implications for the post
games maintenance of Games is a major issue and proper arrangements must be made to make
proper use of these resources and infrastructure. For example the figure skating ring could be
transformed into an indoor sporting game rink or ice rink for similar events. The most important
recommendation would be to implement these resources for a permanent time scale and
eventually bring out the cost that was involved in organizing the games. On the grounds of the
organisation and efficiency, the Games could have been more consolidated with effective
management. The Third recommendation that can be made is to transform the village into a
tourist spot by proper marketing and promotion of the Olympic venues (Lee, 2019). A museum
dedicated to winter sports and recreational activities can be pitched to attract customers and
tourists that can lead to a booming economy of the region. Along with, traditional Korean living
can also be promoted to give the tourist an ethnic feeling of the Korean countryside living.
Yearlong schedules should be planned accordingly to make sure that the resources can bring
economic gains for the long run (Sung 2018, p.4-5). Simultaneously, South Korea can make
optimum use of the resources of the venues by making Pyeongchang a sports destination given
the infrastructure and resources available in the city, it can be a possible sports training facility
and thereby promote winter sports by making proper use of the facilities.

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