Amer Alajmi

Amer graduated from King Saud University in 2012 with a Second-Class Honor in Sports Science. He worked as a sports teacher at a primary school from 2013-2015, and later, he was promoted to a faculty member at the University of Hail, Saudi Arabia. In 2017, Amer returned to university to undertake an MSc in Sports Events Management at the UK centre for events management from Leeds Beckett University. His Master's dissertation focused predominantly on the risk perception associated with travelling to the Middle East to attend sports events. Following this, in January 2020, Amer commenced a PhD at Loughborough University with a specific focus on sports events' role in nation branding.

Research Title: Nation branding through sporting events: exploring the impact of hosting sports events on the destination brand image.

Amer's PhD project aims to evaluate the image impact of sports events on host nations, with a specific focus on Saudi Arabia's brand image among the UK and French populations. By doing so, the outcomes of the project contribute to advancements in the understanding of, and knowledge in, international place branding through the hosting of sports events in the academic literature. It is intended that the research findings will be made available to inform Saudi's policymakers, place marketers, and the wider national related ministries (e.g., tourism and sports) on the country's image among two significant tourism and business markets (the UK and France). In particular, it will serve to evaluate sports branding activities in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region. It will assist in elaborating on how international audiences perceive these branding activities in general and French and British people in particular.

• Exploring the impact of ‘hallmark’ sports events on place image branding: A case study of Saudi Arabia.
• From Traditional Soft Power to Global Nation Branding through Sports: an Exploratory Study of Saudi Arabia.