Mega-events as a catalyst for place-marketing: exploring İzmir EXPO 2015 candidacy and Istanbul ECoC 2010

Since the early-1990’s, mega-events have been considered as a platform for creating landmarks, generating significant media interest, encouraging tourism and improving the image of the host cities. Increasingly, developing countries have bid for hosting mega-events, believing that hosting them presents a powerful opportunity for promoting versions of citizenship, social cohesion and cultural inclusion along with international marketing and image promotion. In order to deliver these events along with different social, economic and physical agendas, cities have to constitute complex organisational structures involving national, regional and local stakeholders. Turkey is one of the countries which has been eager to host mega-events, and different Turkish cities have bid several times to host the Summer Olympic Games, International Exposition (EXPO) and European Capital of Culture (ECoC) festivals. Istanbul tried but failed to win the rights to host the Olympic Games five times (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2020), but the city was successful in securing the 2010 ECoC, as the first non-European city to do so. Another Turkish city, Izmir, bid to host EXPO 2015 and 2020, but failed on both occasions. Both Izmir and Istanbul sought to create networks and new levels of international public culture through these event regimes.

Published online: 29 Sep 2014