THE ORGANIZATION OF EVENTS: A POSSIBILITY OF TOURISM REVIVAL AFTER COVID? THE CASE OF SIBIU

The MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Congresses, Exhibitions) market has recently experienced a rapid growth, as actors at both acroeconomic and microeconomic levels recognized the great potential of this kind of tourism income generator. The events have also become elements that helped shape a tourism destination image or brand, through organized systems such as the portfolio model. However, the Covid pandemic, with its subsequent limitations and economic crisis, has severely impacted the events industry. No events, at any scale, were allowed to be organized, thus resulting in losses of billions of euros worldwide. With the economies slowly reopening, due to the partial lifting of Covid-related limitations, there seems to be room for the revival of tourism destinations. The analysis of previous studies has revealed a scientific gap, related to the possibility of reviving an urban destination through a large scale event. Therefore, the aim of the present scientific paper is to fill this gap, by looking into the perception of potential tourism demand on this subject. It also investigated the specifics of such an event, with a focus on the Romanian city of Sibiu. To this end a survey was conducted in the beginning of the year 2021, and its main results are presented in this article.