Whittle, M, Lomax, N orcid.org/0000-0001-9504-7570, Heppenstall, A orcid.org/0000-0002-0663-3437 et al. (1 more author) (2017) Equitable or Elitist? The social impact of the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ. Area, 49 (1). pp. 60-68. ISSN 0004-0894
Abstract
The Tour de France Grand Départ came to the UK in July 2014. It was heralded as a great success, drawing in an estimated 3.5 million visitors and generating over £128 million for the local economy, but there has been little research on assessing the geodemographics of who attended this event – did it reach out to all sections of society as hoped, or was it contained to the ‘typical’ cycling spectator? Using previously unpublished data, this research examines the demography of the crowd attending different sections of Le Grand Départ and explores whether the event was equitable, i.e. accessible to all sections of the population, or elitist, with a demographic bias in who attended. The results show that there was a bias towards a white, male, middle-aged spectators, which is particularly prominent for the least accessible stages. Ethnic minorities and people with a disability were particularly underrepresented for large parts of the route. Where there were interventions to improve access, the demographic profile of spectators was more in line with the national picture. Understanding who does, and who does not, attend these events has wider implications for the planning of, and longer-term socio-economic impacts of, these events and we recommend that further advanced planning would improve the equitability of future sporting events.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Whittle, M., Lomax, N., Heppenstall, A. and Brerton, S. (2017), Equitable or elitist? The social impact of the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ. Area, 49: 60–68. doi:10.1111/area.12284, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12284. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | United Kingdom; geodemographics; Tour de France; cycling; tourism; survey |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Centre for Spatial Analysis & Policy (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 May 2016 11:41 |
Last Modified: | 17 Aug 2018 00:38 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12284 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/area.12284 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:98518 |