Article Discussing the posthosting evaluation of a mega sporting event: The perception of Warsaw Residents toward UEFA EURO 2012 Justyna Garbacz, J Cadima Ribeiro and Paulo Reis Moura ˜o University of Minho, Portugal Abstract The aim of this paper is to identify Warsaw residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward the UEFA EURO 2012 tournament. The investigation focused on how residents of Warsaw perceived the impacts of the tournament one year after the event. A questionnaire survey was applied using a stratified sampling method to 480 residents of Warsaw. The results of the survey and ordered logit regressions show that although the residents did not perceive that the economic benefits of the tournament were spread uniformly, a large majority valued the tournament’s role in promoting Warsaw as a tourist destination and enhancing the international identity of the city. Whereas residents generally displayed positive attitudes toward EURO 2012 in terms of lifting their pride and bringing the community closer together, they also noted some negative impacts of the event. The opinions expressed about the tournament depended on the age, education, and income of the responders. A majority of the residents agreed that the positive impacts of EURO 2012 outweighed the negative. Keywords UEFA EURO 2012, impact of mega events, residents’ perceptions, Warsaw Introduction Hosting a mega sporting event, such as the UEFA European Championship in 2012, was a major chal- lenge for a developing economy such as Poland. Public investments including the construction of football sta- diums, the modernization of the transportation infra- structure, and the upgrading of host city facilities were necessary to pursue EURO 2012 successfully (Borowski et al., 2013; Deloitte, 2012; Humphreys and Prokopowicz, 2007). An event such as EURO 2012 also can trigger non- monetary benefits that can help compensate for the costs incurred (Deccio and Baloglu, 2002; Gursoy and Kendall, 2006; Gursoy et al., 2011; Jeong and Faulkner, 1996; Kim et al., 2006; Ritchie et al., 2009). The tournament was expected to deliver long- term positive impacts, including the enhancement of the tourism industry, both during the event and after- ward, and change the image of Poland in the international arena (Borowski et al., 2013; Deloitte, 2012; Partner in Business Strategies, 2012). Despite the many studies produced concerning mega events and its impacts (see, for example, Alm et al., 2014; Baade and Matheson, 2004; Barget and Gouget, 2010; Baumann and Matheson, 2013; Getz, 2008; Gursoy and Kendall, 2006; Gursoy et al., 2011; Kim and Petrick, 2005; Ritchie and Hall, 1999; Ritchie et al., 2009), few have focused on residents’ perceptions collected after the events, and even fewer have developed a longitudinal approach to better understand the perceptions about mega events (Gursoy et al., 2011; Ritchie et al., 2009). Although mega sporting events are single, short-term occur- rences, they are likely to have positive and negative Corresponding author: Paulo Reis Mourao, University of Minho, Gualtar Braga 4700, Portugal. Email: paulom@eeg.uminho.pt Tourism and Hospitality Research 0(0) 1–19 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1467358416642009 thr.sagepub.com by SAGE Production (DO NOT CHANGE THE PASSWORD!) on April 19, 2016 thr.sagepub.com Downloaded from