From an event to the creation of an industrial belt, China's sports tourism market is ushering in an upward development trend. Behind this is the boost of giant events, policies, and the overall background of consumption upgrades. The World Tourism Organization predicts that the global sports tourism market is expected to exceed US$400 billion in 2020. As early as the end of 2016, the former National Tourism Administration and the State Sports General Administration jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Vigorously Developing Sports Tourism", which proposed that by 2020, the total consumption of sports tourism will exceed one trillion yuan.
The era of sports tourism "enjoying mountains and rivers" has arrived
The entry of sports celebrities into the sports tourism track may be regarded as one of the epitome of the development of sports tourism, and Deng Yaping is one of the representatives . In October 2016, Deng Yaping's team and Zhongyuan Investment Company jointly launched the Deng Yaping Sports Industry Investment Fund in Henan Province. This is the first domestic sports industry fund named after a famous athlete, with a total planned fundraising scale of 5 billion Yuan, with an initial scale of 500 million Yuan, will be raised and operated in a market-oriented manner.
According to data, as early as 2016, more than 20 sports and culture industry investment funds have been established in China, with a cumulative scale of more than 40 billion yuan. Deng Yaping believes that the sports tourism market has huge space, and people’s pursuit of consumption upgrades and quality life will increasingly be combined with themed, sports and leisure tourism. From a sports perspective, the era of "seeing mountains and rivers" has passed, and the era of "playing with mountains and rivers" has come. It is a must to experience the upgrade of lifestyle.
One of the business layouts of Deng Yaping Sports Industry Investment Fund is to focus on scenic spots, using scenic spots as a carrier, adding sports projects, such as rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking, mountain marathons, hot air balloons and paragliding, in a region A three-dimensional play item system is formed here.
These sports tourism projects are consistent in meeting the needs of participatory and experiential tourism consumption. The same is true for sports tourism projects such as golf, equestrian, mountaineering, diving and outdoor sports. Different from traditional sightseeing tours, sports tourism has more prominent characteristics in terms of the breadth of participating groups, diversified consumer demands, and customer stickiness. Take the marathon as an example. The "2017 China Marathon Big Data Analysis Report" shows that in 2017, there were 1,102 marathon events of various sizes in China, more than three times the 328 events in 2016 and more than 50 times the 22 events in 2011. It not only brings heat to the upstream and downstream of related sports industries, but also becomes the entrance to tourism traffic.
Sports towns can be regarded as a higher or more comprehensive form of the sports tourism industry. In May 2017, the General Administration of Sports issued the "Notice on Promoting the Construction of Sports and Leisure Characteristic Towns" stating that by 2020, the country will support the construction of a number of distinctive sports features, strong cultural atmosphere, industrial agglomeration and integration, good ecological environment, and benefit A town with sports and leisure characteristics that is healthy for the people. Previously, 96 demonstration pilot sports towns have been selected across the country.
Under the dual promotion of policies and markets, real estate developers, investment companies, sports industry companies, etc. have become the main entities in the construction and operation of sports towns. According to incomplete statistics, up to now, more than 20 real estate companies, including China Evergrande, Wanda Group, Greenland Group, Vanke, and Agile Group, have already made plans in the sports industry.
Data show that in 2016 alone, more than 100 sports towns in China have entered the construction stage; in 2017, construction heated up. Outdoor sports such as cycling, marathon, fishing, mountain climbing, ice and snow have become the main embedded content or business formats in sports towns.
The gains and losses of policy support
Behind emerging industries, it is inseparable from the continuous support of many policies. According to incomplete statistics from reporters, from May to November 2016 alone, the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Sports General Administration and other relevant departments issued 9 sports tourism policy documents of varying sizes, including the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Sports Development" ”, “Healthy China 2030” Planning Outline, etc. Its main contents include but are not limited to proposing to build a number of major sports tourism projects; promoting industrial integration, supporting and guiding qualified tourist attractions to expand sports tourism projects; cultivating diverse subjects and guiding social forces to participate in the construction and operation of fitness and leisure facilities; formulating and implementing ice and snow sports , mountain outdoor sports, water sports, aviation sports and other special sports industry development plans, etc.
Wang Xingbin, a former planning expert of the National Tourism Administration, believes that some policies issued by individual departments may not necessarily be very effective. For example, the General Administration of Sports recently issued a document on accelerating the development of the self-driving sports camp industry. In his view, the General Administration of Sports has a good initiative in promoting self-driving sports camps, but this camp involves planning, land and transportation. When promoting the implementation, other related departments need to work together to promote it. Otherwise, it will be difficult to solve the problem by relying on the policy documents of one department alone. "Comprehensive matters must be dealt with comprehensively."
Correspondingly, The previous "Automobile Self-Driving Sports Camp Development Plan" was jointly issued by the General Administration of Sports, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Transport and the former National Tourism Administration.
Wang Xingbin believes that the policies introduced will have effects, but it is difficult to see how effective they will be. Policy documents are too intensively issued, and when implemented, problems may arise at the local government level that are difficult to fully implement.
Because a new policy has not yet been fully implemented, new policies may come again. He said that the key lies in whether local governments truly regard meeting the demands of mass sports as an important part of government work.
The hidden worries behind the craze
Deng Yaping once shared a set of data, that is, the annual growth rate of the global tourism industry is 4% to 5%, and the annual growth rate of global sports tourism is 14%. to 15%, and China’s sports tourism annual growth rate is 30% to 40%. At the same time, sports tourism in developed countries accounts for 25% of the tourism industry, while China only has 5%. There is huge room for development, which also shows that my country's sports tourism is still in the primary stage of development.
A related phenomenon is that hot money is constantly pouring into the sports tourism industry, but there is still a relative lack of high-quality projects or resources for investors to invest in. Deng Yaping said that most scenic spots need to integrate high-quality sports projects, but its sports industry investment fund has not been able to find a good project that can be placed together with the scenic spots. She also said that there is still a lack of teams with sports + tourism cross-border operations, and foreign teams need to be introduced into China. Their local adaptation in China requires the cooperation of very strong local teams, but they are in a state of disconnection.
Sports towns are also in their infancy, and the problems exposed during this period are representative. Many real estate developers play the main role of investment, development and construction in the construction of sports towns, but their overall capabilities are still lacking in the creation of sports tourism products and town operations. For them, the development and operation of characteristic towns is a "new battlefield" that is completely different from the business they have done before.
Tian Tongsheng, co-founder of Paona Technology, believes that not all sports projects can be combined with tourism, and very few can truly successfully operate sports towns. As Liu Li, deputy director of the Jiangsu Provincial Sports Industry Research Institute and vice president of the Tsinghua University Alumni Real Estate Association, recently pointed out in an article, based on the evaluation of the town’s basic characteristics, top-level design and planning, investment implementation, and operation management, the current sports There are inherent shortcomings in town construction, from structural design to industrial engines. Including the lack of top-level design, no concept of industrial chain, lack of sports industry concept and leading projects, etc.