How Can Major Events Be Leveraged to Educate Visitors About Everyday and Endemic Social Challenges?

Our research examines how and why major events can be utilized as platforms for educational programming aimed at citizens in–and domestic and international visitors to–host destinations. We analyzed 10 years of It’s a Penalty’s campaign data (2012‐2022) to identify how educational touchpoints were deployed at strategic locations (airports, airlines, rideshares and taxis, hotels, stadia, media, and social media), working with celebrities, elite athletes, and strategic partners like Airbnb and Uber to raise awareness and help tackle human trafficking and modern-day slavery at 13 major events–FIFA World Cup to the Super Bowl, Brazil to Japan. Findings reveal a nuanced approach for each case reflective of the contextual setting, which are then synthesized into a general model to help future events optimize the educational value of staging major events. We theorize that the visitor’s journey to and across host destinations represent both a liminal and liminoidal “rite of passage”–a system of transit zones, event zones, ancillary and transitionary spaces with educational touchpoints designed to transform one’s attitude and actions toward tackling event-induced and everyday social injustices.