Delivered by Ingenta to: George Mason University IP: 185.106.104.176 On: Wed, 02 Nov 2016 07:33:13 Article(s) and/or figure(s) cannot be used for resale. Please use proper citation format when citing this article including the DOI, publisher reference, volume number and page location. Tourism Review International, Vol. 20, pp. 143–153 1544-2721/16 $60.00 + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3727/154427216X14724915340125 Copyright © 2016 Cognizant, LLC. E-ISSN 1943-4421 www.cognizantcommunication.com 143 Address correspondence to Dr. Kyriaki (Kiki) Kaplanidou, Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management, PO Box 118208, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. Tel: 352-294-1668; E-mail: kiki@hhp.ufl.edu East Region as announced by FIFA in December 2010. The bid for the 2022 World Cup specifically targeted destination and regional image changes. This claim was stated by the Chairman of the Qatar 2022 Bid Committee Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani who said: The economic benefit will be substantial for every country in the Middle East. It will be a huge plat- form towards changing the Islamic and Middle East’s perception of the outside world. I truly Introduction Mega-sport events such as the World Cup and the Olympic Games are frequently cited as the main ingredient of development in terms of infra- structure, destination image perceptions, and intan- gible impacts for the city and nation that hosts the event (Fredline, Jago, & Deery 2003; Kaplanidou & Karadakis, 2010; Lee, Lee, & Lee, 2005; Swart & Bob, 2007). Qatar has the opportunity to host such a mega-sport event for the first time in the Middle QATAR WORLD CUP 2022: AWARENESS OF THE EVENT AND ITS IMPACT ON DESTINATION AND COUNTRY CHARACTER PERCEPTIONS IN THE US TOURISM MARKET KYRIAKI (KIKI) KAPLANIDOU,* AHMED AL-EMADI,† STAVROS TRIANTAFYLLIDIS,* MICHAEL SAGAS,* AND ABDOULAYE DIOP† *Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA †Social and Economic Survey Research Institute, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar This study examined how awareness levels of hosting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar changed percep- tions of Qatar’s destination image, country character, and neighboring destinations’ images. Data were collected through Amazon Mechanical Turk, an online consumer panel comprised of people residing in the US with an Amazon.com account and willing to participate in the surveys. The results revealed that higher awareness of the 2022 World Cup being hosted in Qatar improved host des- tination image perceptions, selective regional country perceptions, country character and relevant behaviors to either travel to Qatar for vacation, for interest to travel to attend the event, or to watch the event on TV. Implications involve strategies to create higher awareness for the destination using the mega-sport event platform for promotions. Key words: 2022 Qatar; World Cup; Country character; Destination image; Tourism