How can mega-events contribute to urban tourism in developing countries? A case study of the 2016 G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China

ABSTRACTABSTRACTHangzhou is a representative tourism city of natural culture, which has been widely accepted by both domestic and foreign tourists. The success of the 2016 G20 Summit has injected new spirit and connotations into the city’s image. The main purpose of the paper is to investigate how the summit affects Hangzhou’s tourism image and from what aspect it has improved the urban competitiveness of Hangzhou. The statistical data based on questionnaires shows that the G20 Summit does have a great impact on Hangzhou’s tourism development. Furthermore, multivariate factor analysis for the collected data reveals that the summit has the greatest impact on tourism resources and public transport in Hangzhou, which shows that the G20 has a long-term and sustainable impact on the city.KEYWORDS: G20 SummitHangzhou imagestatistical investigationmega-event impacturban tourismJEL Classifications: O11 Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71901195]; Hangzhou Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project [grant number M22JC104].