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, and sports celebrities have entered the sports tourism track, which 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.

Data shows that 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" is over. 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, to form a three-dimensional entertainment project system in an area

.

In terms of meeting the needs of participatory and experiential tourism consumption, these sports tourism projects are consistent.

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.

Driven by both 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 shows 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.

Behind the gains and losses of policy support, emerging industries are 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 from 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"

The 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.