Impacts of Gothia Cup on Gothenburg - From the perceptions of local residents

Abstract: Cities work in increasing their destination awareness. A popular strategy is organising events and festivals. Developing unique selling proposition for a city is inappropriate if excluding the opinions and support of the local residents. Therefore, a case study was conducted on the world’s largest international youth football tournament, Gothia Cup. Gothenburg goes through a transition during Gothia Cup, which creates both opportunities and perhaps problems for the locals. Locals’ perception towards Gothia Cup was measured through Non-use value framework. Perceptions of Gothia Cup were measured through sending out online surveys to both Random and Non-random samples from Gothenburg. With the help of Non-use value framework, the results indicated different socio-cultural impacts that Gothia Cup had on Gothenburg. The locals were positive about Gothia Cup in terms of economics, tourism, destination enhancement, well-being etc. There are rooms of improvement that need to be taken into account of how Gothia Cup should create a better involvement with locals and making them feel that the event provide meaningful impacts on their lives.