Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

The purposes of this chapter are to both conceptualise and systematise the major factors, and provide an overview of event development and competition in the tourism market by a review of the concepts. The literature will also examine research on residents' perceptions of the impacts of MICE to provide a foundation for the analysis.

Several important features have emerged from an examination of the literature on MICE. First, there is no unified definition and classification of events. Many definitions of different event types are mixed. For example, MICE in some studies belong to hallmark events, in others, they are categorised differently. Some literature classifies festivals under the mega events or special events; some others identify festivals as one of the phenomena of MICE. Second, there is a huge range of event tourism impacts, but the majority are based on economic orientation with relatively little attention being paid to the important psychological, social, and physical impacts. Third, it can be observed that much of the research is pragmatic and descriptive in nature and an absence of conceptualisation exists other than in the use of economic modelling based on multipliers and input-output methods of economic assessment.