Modelling cultural special events management in an Egyptian context

Abstract

Since 1992, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism has established an annual special events agenda to achieve a cluster of social, economic and political aims. Over a ten-year period, the special events involved have not demonstrated clear success; a situation partly attributed to managerial problems and the lack of a good practice model of special events management applicable to the Egyptian context. Thus, this study focuses upon developing a model for managing cultural special events, which is potentially applicable in an Egyptian context. The issues related to special event managements were examined via an extensive literature review, which culminated in the development of a theoretical model of special events management. The theoretical model was then used as a projective instrument to stimulate the presentation of a multiple case study of three Welsh cultural special events. Utilizing semi-structured interviews, the Welsh cases resulted in three reasonably similar managerial models, which were then unified in a Welsh best practice model through the use of the Delphi technique. Three Egyptian cultural special events were analysed, via document analysis, which enabled the exploration of the managerial models currently applied to these cultural special events. The three Egyptian models were then compared against the Welsh best practice model resulting in the identification of eight dissimilarities. Following discussions with Egyptian practitioners, via semi-structured interviews, these dissimilarities were reduced to six managerial problems to which the failure of some of the Egyptian events can be attributed: the absence of SMART objectives; the absence of initial financial study; the unjustified decision-making regarding launching special events; the insufficient lead-time for the planning activities, notably promotion the absence of market research; and the absence of outcome evaluation. Consequently, a theoretical guide for managing these six problem areas was developed out of the literature. Semi-structured interviews with the Welsh practitioners were utilized again leading to the development of the theoretical guide into a Welsh best practice guide. Finally, both the Welsh best practice model and guide were discussed with the Egyptian practitioners, via semi-structured interviews associated with the Delphi technique, resulting in the development of a suggested model and guide potentially applicable in an Egyptian context.