The global research community has identified that, as society becomes ever more mobile and 24/7-oriented, data collection methods that reflect the day-to-day experiences of its participants need to be developed. This article reviews the success and issues of using a solicited email-diary, developed to investigate the impact on commuters of London hosting the 2012 Olympic Games. Research on the effectiveness of diaries as a method of data collection is limited, while there appears to be no analysis using email as a method of soliciting diary responses. The article identifies the research opportunities for an email-diary and the solutions it provides to a number of the problems and limitations experienced with a traditional pen-and-paper diary.

The purpose of this study is to examine how effective the international promotion of a sport event is on changing the destination image prior to the event if the sport event lacks global popularity. The authors conducted a quasi-experimental posttest research design, in which they used promotional information of a Tour de France stage to manipulate the destination image nonvisitors (N = 3,505) from nine different nations have of the hosting city, 5 months prior to the actual event. Results show that treating the international market as a homogeneous entity might be deceptive, as the effect of the event was different from nation to nation, pending on the popularity of the event or sport in the specific nation, and whether the nation itself offered similar events.

This paper presents an independent review of the travel demand management (TDM) program for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games, including the official TDM plan and a discussion of the undocumented but highly influential aspects of the “big scare” effect. The games were some of the largest planned in history, with more than 20 million additional trips expected in a city renowned for significant daily travel congestion. The network of Olympic lanes was the largest ever (108 mi); a traffic lane was designated for exclusive use by Olympic vehicles over a large proportion of inner London's roads. The TDM program was the largest in history and cost £30 million for extensive advertising, travel planning for 611,000 employees, new trip planning web tools, and the transmission of 107 million travel advice e-mails. This program, along with a substantial transit development program, aimed to encourage public transit use and to reduce base load travel so as to increase the capacity for games-related travel. The TDM program warned Londoners to change their travel patterns during the games. This warning, a range of probably unplanned events, and media hysteria before the games acted to enhance the big scare effect of the games on travel. The impact of the games on travel was impressive. About 20 million (more than 30%) additional transit trips resulted. Road travel itself decreased by 10% to 30%. A 26% change in travel by London residents included a 20% reduction in travel and a 13% change in travel (i.e., retiming 6%, rerouting 4%, and remoding 3%). Significantly, media reporting was highly positive during the time that the games took place. Business surveys corroborated these findings: employee attendance decreased by 30%, and a strong preference was shown to reduce and retime commutes. Implications for policy and future research are identified in the paper.

The impact of and reaction to the disruption on transport created by mega-events on host communities and, in particular, businesses, is an underresearched area. Utilizing social exchange theory, this article examines the relationship between businesses and transport authorities in the implementation of the Travel Demand Management (TDM) strategy for the London Olympics 2012. This research identifies the mechanisms by which the authorities meet the specific antecedent conditions that impact on the exchange. This research is unusual as a qualitative approach is used to gain in-depth understanding of the impacts of mega-events on business and their attitudes to these antecedents. The theoretical contribution of this study is a model that depicts the decision-making processes by which businesses evaluate the exchange relationship. Results identify that there is a link between business typology, antecedent, and the level of engagement. The practical implications of the results and the limitations of the study are discussed with reference to future mega-events and research possibilities.