Mega events, tourism and local development: the case of Torino 2006

This paper examines the impact of mega-events such as Olympic Games on tourism development in host territories. In the first part, we adopt a territorialization approach to understand the relationship between the event and the host region.A mega-event is conceived as a great chance to generate new territory as it produces both tangible and intangible legacies that remain after the event ends: renewal of facilities for hospitality and accommodation, better infrastructures, better training for people in the tourism business, improvement in international visibility. These legacies can represent a platform for future tourism development, if local policies demonstrates the ability to re-territorialize mega-event’s legacy transforming temporary effects on tourism into long-lasting ones. The paper then focuses on the Torino 2006 case. Moving from an overview to recent tourism data, some considerations on the post-event trends in the Olympic territory are proposed. Thus, the paper highlights several critical aspects for a re-territorialization of the Olympic legacies and for tourism policies that can sustain the positive effects of the event over the long term.