"

104 SUSTAINABLE EVENT TOURISM AND EVENT MANAGEMENT – Contributions by Kim Werner

My background is in tourism and after completing my undergraduate I worked for several travel and tourism companies in Germany – and gradually shifted into the events area more and more. I also did my PhD in an area that combined tourism (or destination management) and events. I was interested in finding out how knowledge is transferred among the many stakeholders of a tourism destination during the planning and organisation of a mega-event, i.e. the Rugby World Cup 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand (Werner et al., 2015a, b, c; 2016). However, one of the concerns I’ve always had was the negative impact of events. Any gathering of people can significantly impact the environment, for example through waste generation, energy consumption, and carbon emissions (Jones, 2025; Mair, 2021). On the other hand, we can and should use events strategically to promote a healthier lifestyle and to spread messages on how to jointly protect our earth and save resources. Events are also powerful tools for communication!

So over the last ten years, I have started to really focus on sustainable event management, with a particular emphasis on environmental sustainability.

Sustainable event management – early research

In the first years of research on sustainable events, I looked at how existing concepts and models could be used to promote pro-environmentally behaviour. For example, I (together with my colleagues) combined the concepts of value co-creation with sustainable festival management and investigated how to best integrate sustainability practices into the festival experience to encourage environmentally responsible behaviours (Werner et al, 2019). Through this study, we found the importance of segmenting festival attendees into distinct groups – sustainable co-creators, calculating participants, and experience seekers – to tailor sustainability efforts effectively. As such, actively involving attendees in co-creation and providing incentives for eco-friendly actions can foster a stronger collective commitment to sustainability.
We’ve also looked at the service dominant logic (S-D logic) and tried to integrate it with sustainable event management. In the context of business events, we found that the S-D Logic provides a comprehensive framework to better understand and promote sustainability in events by considering micro, meso, and macro levels of stakeholder interactions and resource co-creation. So balancing official regulations with cultural norms and values can really foster sustainable behaviours among stakeholders.
Finally, we came across the concepts of “slow travel” and “slow tourism” and applied them to the events’ context. Here, we explored the concept of Slow Events as a strategic tool within the Slow Movement to promote sustainable, authentic, and community-oriented experiences that support local traditions, small businesses, and environmental preservation. We conducted interviews in the small town of “Bad Essen”, Germany (a “cittaslow” community) and were able to identify the key characteristics of Slow Events, such as authenticity, deceleration, and smaller size, which contribute to their potential for fostering social cohesion and sustainability. Overall, we found that Slow Events can serve as prototypes for new, responsible ways of living and sustainable destination development by encouraging slower, more meaningful interactions with local culture and environment. This was one of my favourite research topics so far and I was very happy to have the opportunity to publish the research in both the Journal of Sustainable Tourism and a book edited by Judith Mair and Andrew Smith (Werner et al., 2020, 2021, 2022).

Social sustainability – gender equality in the event industry

From a social sustainability perspective, I was and am also very interested in the challenges women face in our industry. I think that it is very important to support each other. I also regard it as an essential part of my role as a professor at a university to support young female students with their careers. I therefore also conducted research on female careers in the event industry (Böhmer et al., 2020), in particular by interviewing our alumni about the experiences they had once entered the industry (Werner, 2023). My study highlighted significant gender-related challenges such as masculine work culture, glass ceiling, and gender stereotyping. Despite these obstacles, most of our alumni remained motivated and optimistic about industry transformation, especially amidst COVID-19-related changes. With my research, I try to contribute to a more attractive and equitable future for women in our industry – there are so many fantastic women out there!

Climate adaptation in event contexts

In 2022 I (together with two colleagues) was able to obtain my first bigger research grant with the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) for a research project that is – up to today – very close to me and which I regard as one of the most relevant topics in today’s world: climate adaptation. Climate adaptation refers to the process of adjusting to actual or expected climate change and its effects to reduce harm or take advantage of beneficial opportunities. So far, most research on sustainable events has been directed at climate protection or mitigation, i.e., focusing on reducing or preventing the emission of greenhouse gases to limit the extent of climate change. This includes actions aimed at energy saving, waste reduction, and other measures that decrease the industry’s overall contribution to global warming. However, climate adaptation has not been on the agenda by many researchers in event contexts – even though the consequences for our industry can be severe (Orr, 2024).

Extreme weather events, such as heavy rainfall, storms, and heatwaves, can result in the cancellation or interruption of events due to safety concerns and operational difficulties. They may also cause damage to infrastructure and event facilities, causing economic losses for organisers and local governments. Additionally, these weather events can lead to increased costs for contingency planning and emergency response measures. Extreme weather can also harm the reputation of events by
negatively impacting media coverage, thereby potentially affecting future attendance. The unpredictability of these occurrences necessitates the development of comprehensive contingency plans to mitigate risks and ensure the safety of events. (Werner, 2024).

In our first study in the context of climate adaptation (Werner et al., 2024), we unfortunately found a very low level of awareness of and interest in climate adaptation amongst German event industry players. The topic is simply not on the agenda of many – although it should be given that it affects the future of events and therefore of our entire industry.

Therefore, our second paper (Griese et al., 2025) has the catchy title “Dead or Alive – climate adaptation phases in the event industry”. We reviewed the extant literature to identify five potential climate adaptation phases: no adaptation, adaptation, postponement, cancellation, and substitution. As such, there are different possibilities for event organisers on how to respond to climate change – with different consequences involved. We also try to bring a bit more light into decision-making processes for organisers across these five phases. Overall, we see a pressing need for both practitioners and researchers to pay more attention to this topic. More context-specific planning and policy development are needed to enhance the resilience of events amidst increasing climate-related challenges.

Given that I am a big sport and particularly football (soccer) enthusiast (I come from a football family and have also worked for a subsidiary of the German Football Association, DFL, organising events and travel for the Bundesliga teams) – I also did a specific study just looking at sport event organisers in Germany. I again found that climate adaptation is not yet a primary focus in the German sport event context. While some planners, especially those of large-scale events, have started implementing adaptation measures, others (particularly those of smaller events) are only beginning to address the issue (Werner, 2024).

Our research project will still run until March 2026 and for the remaining months, our team will be working on a detailed “toolbox” outlining hands-on, practical adaptation measures for different types of events and different weather-related impacts. So watch this space… there will hopefully be more research to come (and for further information on the project, please visit www.klima-event.de).

Future projects and outlook

Another sustainability-related topic that we have recently started to look at is the circular economy – given its huge potential to reduce waste, emissions and costs in the long term. We are currently working on a paper that investigates why the concept of the circular economy has – despite its potential – hardly been implemented in the event industry to date. We focus on trade fairs and have already identified various barriers, including a lack of awareness, high initial costs, limited time resources and a lack of clear guidelines and technological innovation. This study is part of a research grant funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) and –
together with several partners from the industry that are involved in this project – we see the circular economy’s huge potential to contribute to the future sustainable transformation of the event industry. So there will hopefully be lots of valuable findings coming out of this project.
As outlined earlier, sustainable event management and the sustainable transformation of our industry are of utmost importance to me, and I will continue putting all my research efforts into this area. I want to contribute just a tiny little share to a more sustainable world – in particular for my two daughters. So my research is dedicated to Lily Moana and Frieda Anahera and to the many fabulous women researchers out there who contribute knowledge to our field. I’ve just recently been able to work with two very special ones – Judith Mair and Sylvia Trendafilova – and it has been an absolute honour to publish a joint article (Mair et al., 2024) on environmental sustainability.

 

Figure 1. Event participants suffering from heat. ©Lilith Werner

The amazing drawing (see Figure 1) that is part of this contribution is from my talented 14-year old daughter Lily – who has captured what might happen to outdoor events in the near future – with extreme heatwaves being a very realistic scenario. It has just recently disrupted an open-air concert here in our city (Osnabrück, North-West Germany), where several young concert-goers were at risk of suffering from heat-related illnesses due to extreme heat and the failure to provide free water by the organiser. This is something that my daughters will be increasingly faced with in the future – which makes me even more determined to fight climate change at all costs. And I am happy to be part of this supportive community of women researchers. So here’s a big shout-out to all those amazing women in tourism research: please keep doing all the wonderful things you do, and let’s work together to make the world a little bit better every day!

 

Written by Kim Werner, Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Read Kim’s letter to future generations of tourism researchers

References

Böhmer, N., Werner, K. & Wargin, I. (2020). Female Careers in the event industry: Myth, reality or future vision? In: K. Werner & Y. Ding: Events: Future, trends, perspectives: An international approach (pp. 31-50). München: utb/UVK

Griese, K.-M., Werner, K. & Dresing, M. (2024). Dead or alive – climate adaptation phases in the event industry: a systematic literature review. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2024.2443735

Jones, M. (2025). Sustainable event management: A practical guide. Fourth edition. Routledge.

Mair, J. (2021). The sustainable events management agenda: New challenges for practice and research. In Events and Sustainability (pp. 23-39). Routledge.

Mair, J., Trendafilova, S. & Werner, K. (2024). Environmental Sustainability in Event Management: A Critical Commentary. Event Management, 28(3), pp. 477-484(8) https://doi.org/10.3727/152599524X17046754077334

Orr, M. (2024). Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sport. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Werner, K. (2021). The future is female, the future is diverse: perceptions of young female talents on their future in the (German) event industry, Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events. https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2021.1975289

Werner, K. (2024). The need to (climate) adapt: perceptions of German sports event planners on the imperative to address climate change. Frontiers in Sport and Active Living, (6/2024), doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2024.1505372

Werner, K., Dickson, G. & Hyde, K.F. (2015a). Learning and knowledge transfer processes in a mega-events context: The case of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Tourism Management, 48, 174 – 184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.11.003

Werner, K., Dickson, G. & Hyde, K.F. (2015b). The impact of a mega-event on inter-organisational relationships and tie strength: Perceptions from the 2011 Rugby World
Cup. Sport Management Review, 18(3), 421–435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2014.11.005

Werner, K., Dickson, G. & Hyde, K.F. (2015c). Coopetition and knowledge transfer dynamics: New Zealand’s regional tourism organisations and the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Event Management, 19(3), 365-380. https://doi.org/10.3727/152599515X14386220874841

Werner, K., Dickson, G. & Hyde, K.F. (2016). Mega-events and increased collaborative capacity of tourism destinations: The case of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 5(3), 227–238. https://doi:10.1016/j.jdmm.2015.12.009

Werner, K., Griese, K.-M., & Hogg, J. (2017). Service dominant logic as a new fundamental framework for analyzing event sustainability: A case study from the German meetings industry. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, 18 (4), 318-343. doi: 10.1080/15470148.2017.1365670

Werner, K., Griese, K.-M., Faatz, A. (2019). Value co-creation processes at sustainable music festivals: A grounded theory approach. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 10 (3), pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEFM-06-2019-0031

Werner, K., Bosse, C. & Griese, K.-M. (2020). Slow Events: Assessing the potential for the event industry of the future. In: K. Werner & Y. Ding: Events: Future, trends, perspectives: An international approach (pp. 201-218). München: utb/UVK

Werner, K., Griese, K-M., & Bosse, C. (2021). The role of slow events for sustainable destination development: A conceptual and empirical review. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29 (11-12), 1913-1931. doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1800021

Werner, K., Griese, K.-M., & Bosse, C. (2022). The role of slow events for sustainable destination development: a conceptual and empirical review. In: A. Smith & J. Mair (eds.), Events and sustainability: Can Events Make Places More Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable? (Chapter 10). Routledge

Werner, K., Griese, K. M., & Hoth, L. (2024). The Acceptance of Climate Adaptation Measures in the Event Industry: A Conceptual and Empirical Overview. Event Management. 28(1), pp. 105-127(23) https://doi.org/10.3727/152599523X16896548396770

Licence

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Women’s voices in tourism research Copyright © 2021 by The University of Queensland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.