According to statistics, during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Beijing received 6.52 million Chinese and foreign tourists. After the games, the Olympic functional areas including the National Stadium “Bird’s Nest”, the National Aquatics Center “Water Cube”, and the National Convention Center have been accelerating their transformation. Various large-scale events, performances and high-end conferences and exhibitions are staged in turn. As of 2018, it has received more than 500 million Chinese and foreign tourists.
Source: Tencent Sports
In today’s society, the influence of sports events has far exceeded the scope of sports itself. It not only improves the popularity and influence of the host city, but also shows more cultural tourism resources to the public. The implementation of the concept of “sports + cultural tourism” has opened up a new direction for the development of cultural tourism and sports industry.
Sports stars in sports events are one of the important factors to attract sports tourism tourists. Many sports fans are willing to travel to host cities to watch games in order to meet their favorite star athletes. This undoubtedly brings a huge source of tourists to the host city. During the World Figure Skating Championships held in Saitama, Japan in March 2019, the participation of the famous figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu attracted the attention of many ice fans who love him, and the ticket price soared to 10 times the original price. The competition was full, which brought considerable benefits to the organizers. During the competition, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. While watching the competition, ice fans from all over the world also enjoyed the beautiful cherry blossoms, which promoted tourism consumption in Saitama.
The power that sports events can bring to urban tourism is amazing. In addition to striving to build the city’s appearance, the city also needs to constantly think about how to provide sports tourism tourists with sports-related tourism experience activities and improve the chances of tourists visiting again .
After the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan, many ice fans threw dolls on the ice to express their love for the players
Source: see watermark
The public’s demand for leisure and fitness stimulated by sports events is the driving force for the development of sports tourism. The successful bid for the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics in 2022 has brought ice and snow events into the public eye; more and more sports enthusiasts are participating in sports activities such as mountaineering and marathons; urban sports parks with various themes provide good places for the public to exercise . “WeChat Movement” has set off a fitness craze among young people. People of different age groups are willing to take the initiative to contact sports and spread sports online and offline, which has prompted people to deepen their understanding of sports. Sports culture is gradually form .
It can be seen that the in-depth integration of sports and tourism can not only drive the development of sports events and events, but also one of the ways to enhance the popularity of tourist destinations and better develop local tourism resources.
2018 China Fortune Land Development Beijing Marathon starts in front of Tiananmen Square
Source: Beijing Marathon official website
Creating high-quality IP is an important element for the sustainable development of sports tourism. Looking back at the development history of sports tourism, although China has succeeded in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, it still lags behind developed sports tourism countries in terms of development scale and market competitiveness . For Chinese sports fans, the NBA and the World Cup can be regarded as the most popular events in the world, and the United States, England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the most popular places where these events are held, have a profound history of sports development and have formed their own unique sports culture. Some sports IP.
In fact, in China’s large, medium and small cities, different sports events are held every year. However, due to the immaturity of local sports tourism, or the lack of better integration of sports, events, and tourism in publicity and marketing, these sports events are only “gatherings of a few enthusiasts.” Therefore, how to do a good job in the marketing of a high-quality event requires in-depth thinking by the organizer and the host city in terms of publicity methods, positioning, and how to combine local tourism resources for marketing . Tell the story of sports tourism well, form your own competitive IP, and attract more people to participate in it.
In addition to the fierce motorcycle competition in the 2019 China Superbike Championship, there are also cute and personalized cultural and creative products to add to the fun of the competition
Source: Immediately start WeChat public account
At present, China’s tourism industry is in a critical period of transformation and upgrading, and the growing sports industry has injected impetus into the integration of “sports + tourism”. This year, the “Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Development of All-Foreign Tourism” issued by the General Office of the State Council proposes to turn qualified scenic spots, idle space in development zones, sports venues, sports and leisure towns, and contiguous beautiful villages into sports tourism resorts . . With the attention of many parties, the development of sports tourism has a long way to go.
As an important driving force, sports events are also particularly important in the process of setting up sports stages and traveling and performing operas. The finals of the 2020 Figure Skating Grand Prix will be held in Beijing, and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics will be ushered in in 2022. After South Korea withdrew from the bidding city for the 2023 Asian Cup, China has become the only bidder country. More and more international events are shifting their targets to China. I believe that by then, we will welcome tourists from all over the world with a more mature, personalized and enthusiastic appearance. Before that , it is our essential homework to actively explore the development model of sports tourism and make preparations .
