Sports drive culture, empower tourism – Current Affairs
Yuxi is the only national sports industry contact point city in our province, and it is also the only prefecture (city) where “three-star” talents of Olympic Star, Asian Star and National Star have emerged. In recent years, our city has been committed to building a high-quality plateau event brand. From January to August this year, the city held 243 events of various types, undertook 100 sports team trainings, and the number of participants in events and training was 497,000, which drove consumption and investment in sports and related industries by about 380 million yuan, forming a good momentum of “watching football in Yuxi” in the province, and integrating sports with multiple industries such as commerce, culture and tourism. How to shape the city with business formats, build the city with scenes, and develop the city with culture, promote the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism, and gather urban traffic, increase popularity, and boost consumption?
Football matches gather resources, business formats, and popularity.
Since the beginning of this year, Yuxi has used football matches as a breakthrough point to connect and integrate a series of resources such as special cultural activities, art performances, food, markets, business districts, intangible cultural heritage, scenic spots and attractions, and strived to strengthen the sports and health tourism product system and the construction of new consumption scenarios. With events as the guide, it has launched a “combination punch” for the in-depth integration of culture, sports and tourism.
Football has become a new city name card for Nie Er’s hometown, attracting tourists from all over the world to Yuxi to watch football, taste delicious food, enjoy beautiful scenery, and experience “a kind of life called Yunnan”. (Photo from this newspaper)
The economic driving effect of football is becoming increasingly prominent
On September 7, the 22nd round of the Chinese Football Association First Division League, Yunnan Yukun team played against Guangxi Pingguo Ha Liao Guo Jing team at home at Yunnan Yuxi Plateau Sports Center. 19,678 spectators attended the game, and the cheers and shouts were endless, and the atmosphere was very warm.
After tasting the traditional Yuxi food “Eight Bowls” and authentic eel rice noodles with his friends, Kunming football fan Mr. Li entered the stadium with an extremely comfortable mood to experience the charm of football and the passion of the game. “In the past, the catering consumption options around the stadium were relatively limited. Now, in addition to various snacks at the football night market, you can also taste the long street banquet, which is very considerate.” Mr. Li said.
The football economy not only affects the consumption experience of fans, but also boosts the consumer market and the night economy. On the night of every match day, the Yousuo Mangrove Food Plaza in the central city of Yuxi is particularly lively. In addition to regular meals, the Gasa Soup Pot Food Store has also added dishes and launched night consumption. “Our average number of night consumption receptions is more than 200, and the highest number of receptions on one day is more than 300. I hope the government will increase publicity efforts to allow more fans to stop and slowly taste Yuxi.” Zhang Shujing, operations director of the Gasa Soup Pot Food Store, said.
A football game brings a city to life.
While seizing traffic and conducting multi-dimensional publicity and marketing, the cultural and tourism departments also actively integrated resources, linking 42 hotels, scenic spots, and travel agencies in the city to launch a cultural and tourism gift package for fans containing 51 discounts. Fans can enjoy hotel discounts, scenic spot discounts, and travel route discounts with their tickets. Organize travel agencies to customize and launch 10 pure play tourism products such as a one-day tour of Hongta District, a one-day tour of Ailao Mountain in Xinping Gasa, and a one-day tour of Fuxian Lake in Chengjiang, and promote them on platforms such as the “Yuxi Tourism Card”. Linking with Yukun Football Club, we launched an activity for group travel agencies to bring groups into Yu and give away football tickets. At the same time, we continue to carry out online live broadcasting and sales activities for the “Yuxi Love and Friendship” brand of intangible cultural heritage tourism specialty products, and together with Yukun Football Club, actively explore the live broadcasting and sales business model of “football live broadcast + cultural and tourism product exhibition and sales”.
“Since the beginning of this year, Yuxi has hosted 12 home games of Yunnan Yukun Team in the China League One, with an average of 19,000 people participating in each game. Fans from 16 prefectures (cities) in the province have come to Yuxi to watch the games, and the attendance rate ranks among the top in the China League One. By launching cultural and tourism gift packages and launching a series of preferential consumption promotion activities called ‘Tickets +’, we have promoted the integration of sports with multiple industries such as commerce, culture and tourism, and formed a good momentum of ‘watching football in Yuxi’ in the province, and the football economy has become increasingly prominent.” Wang Liping, Party Secretary of Yuxi Science and Education Innovation Service Center, said. According to statistics, in the first half of this year, Hongta District received a total of 7.5 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 2.1%; realized tourism revenue of 8.02 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.25%; and the turnover of the limited accommodation industry was 122 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.09%. During the home games of Yunnan Yukun Team in the China League One, the passenger flow of business districts such as Wanda Plaza in Hongta District, Lin’an Sanqiancheng Shopping Park, and Yuxi Qinghua Street reached 725,000, with a business income of more than 38 million yuan. On the day of each round of competition, both operating revenue and passenger flow increased significantly compared to the previous weekend.
Transforming event traffic into incremental consumption
Yuxi is located in the core area of the “1-hour economic circle” in central Yunnan, with unique transportation advantages, rich cultural and tourism resources and a good foundation for the development of the sports industry. With the continuous improvement of sports tourism infrastructure such as the Yunnan Yuxi Plateau Sports Center, Yuxi Plateau Football Training Base, Fuxian Lake Sailing Base, and Yuanjiang Paragliding Flight Camp, Yuxi has initially formed a sports tourism industry covering three major categories of “water, land, and air”, providing tourists and sports enthusiasts with a variety of sports tourism and fitness and health options.
On September 8, the 2024 Yuxi Outdoor Sports Carnival Premium Event – Silicon Power Cup Yimen Green Juice 72 Turns Bicycle Climbing Race was held. 340 competitors from all over the country rode passionately, appreciating the unique charm of 72 turns and 108 bends, and admiring the magnificent canyon scenery.
This event is one of the series of activities of “Enjoy the Outdoors and Travel in Yuxi with Events”, and it is also a concrete practice of our city to further promote the integration of culture, sports and tourism through events. Since the beginning of this year, Yuxi has focused on outdoor sports, national fitness, competition activities and plateau training based on its own reality, with the goal of “traveling with events, promoting consumption through mass sports, increasing consumption through professional events, and promoting advantages through plateau training”, deeply tapping into local sports tourism and cultural resources, actively promoting the deep integration of sports, culture and tourism, focusing on the development of “sports + tourism”, “sports + outdoor”, “sports + health care” and other formats, and creating unique sports industry forms in each county (city, district).
According to the relevant person in charge of the Yuxi Municipal Education and Sports Bureau, in 2024, the city will take “a series of one feature, watch the game and travel in Yuxi” as the theme, accurately plan brand events, focus on cultivating the Yuxi Outdoor Sports Carnival, Yuxi Marathon, Fuxian Lake Half Marathon, and the plateau sports training industry system, and make efforts in “global, all-category, and all-round” to create a high-quality event brand for the Yuxi Plateau. From January to August this year, the city held 243 events of various types, undertook 100 sports team trainings, and the number of participants in events and training was 497,000, which boosted consumption and investment in sports and related industries by about 380 million yuan.
In order to further promote the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism and truly transform event traffic into incremental consumption, the Yuxi Municipal Education and Sports Bureau actively promoted the development of the event economy. In combination with the schedule of the China League One, it successively held the “Future Star” Youth Football Invitational Tournament, the “2024 Yunnan Yukun Club Cup” and other football matches, with a total of more than 5,000 people participating, setting off a national football craze.
Actively promote the free or low-cost opening of sports venues to create a strong atmosphere of national fitness. A total of 15 public sports venues in the city have been included in the list of free or low-cost opening, providing citizens with a rich variety of fitness options. At the same time, a total of 122 on-campus sports venues and facilities in 39 primary and secondary schools in the city are open to the public, alleviating the contradiction between the people’s growing demand for sports and fitness and the insufficient supply of sports venue resources. From January to July 2024, a total of 3.772 million people were received.
We will make every effort to promote the construction of sports parks. So far, the city has built sports parks such as Yuxi Hongta Cultural and Sports Center, Skateboard Park, and Chengjiang City Competitive Sports Park. The construction of these sports parks not only provides citizens with important places for sports and leisure such as skateboarding, basketball, and football, but also promotes the popularization of national fitness. At the same time, 15 outdoor camps such as Fangsheng Auto and Motorcycle Off-Road Sports Camp, Yuxi Plateau Sports Center Karting Camp, and Xinping Mopanshan Outdoor Sports Camp also provide consumers with a rich and diverse consumer experience of karting, auto and motorcycle, adventure, hiking, sailing, diving, paragliding, etc.
Accumulate momentum and energy to promote deep integration
As one of the sports bases in China that can host the most complete categories of events and the latest facilities, the Yunnan Yuxi Plateau Sports Center relies on “one stadium, ten venues, one base” and supporting projects such as athletes’ apartments and Xiangwang Hotel to create a plateau-featured sports industry project integrating competition, mass, outdoor sports events, plateau training, study tours, cultural entertainment, etc. From January to August 2024, a total of 39 sub-plateau training teams with 30,637 people were received, including 5 national teams. As of August this year, the center has held 86 national professional events, mass sports events and activities, with a participation scale of 2.375 million people.
In addition to the Yunnan Yuxi Plateau Sports Center, our city also has sports bases such as the Yuxi Plateau Football Training Base, the Yuanjiang Low Altitude Training Base, and the Fuxian Lake Sailing Base. The complete venues and bases provide strong support for Yuxi to create high-quality events with regional characteristics, transforming event traffic into consumption growth, and allowing Yuxi’s cultural, sports and tourism industries to show new development vitality and potential. However, an unavoidable reality is that in the process of promoting the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism, the city still has problems such as insufficient resource integration and utilization, lack of professional planning and operation, insufficient development of tourism products, insufficient “sports +” industry forms, and the ability of events to retain people and stimulate consumption not meeting expectations.
How to unlock the “traffic code” for continuous “out-of-circle” development and promote the integration of culture, sports and tourism to generate large traffic and create new value?
“In the next step, we will follow the work requirements of the municipal party committee and government, deeply explore Yuxi’s natural resources and unique cultural resources, take the promotion of resource integration as the basis, and let the scattered forces form aggregated development; focus on the introduction of events and activities, and let the hot spots develop into normal traffic; enrich consumption scenarios and business formats as the key, and turn sports ‘traffic’ into cultural and tourism ‘retention’; use sports to lead, culture to empower, and tourism to drive, to promote the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism in the city.” Wang Liping said.
The tourism industry has a high degree of correlation and strong driving force, involving a variety of consumption scenarios such as food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment, but why has the level of tourism-related consumption been difficult to improve?
Liang Yuhao, Party Secretary and Director of Yuxi Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, said: “In the next step, Yuxi will take the football event economy as a breakthrough point, continue to integrate resources, aggregate strength, enrich business formats, and continuously improve the supporting service guarantee system and product format system. Through branding, precision marketing, systematic linkage, and project construction, we will continue to build Yuxi’s ‘sports + tourism’ brand.” Specifically, it is to take “travel with the event and enjoy the leisure time in Yuxi” as the brand positioning, continuously market the hot topics of Yuxi sports tourism, create explosive content, and continuously expand the popularity and reputation of Yuxi sports tourism brand. Seize the flow of each event, accurately segment tourists, and continuously launch a series of leisure, experience, and vacation strategies to continuously unlock new ways of playing, new feelings, and new experiences in Yuxi; take football events as a breakthrough point to create diversified consumption scenarios, provide rich and diverse consumption options, and actively explore new models and mechanisms for brand linkage and interest sharing between sports event operators and consumer format market entities. Focus on developing integrated business formats such as “national fitness + tourism”, “sports events + tourism”, and “outdoor sports + tourism”, and continue to build a “sports + tourism” product system.
“The Yuxi Municipal Education and Sports Bureau will further strengthen the organization of sports clubs, guide the Municipal Football Association and other sports clubs to carry out events, and promote the deep integration and coordinated development of national fitness and competitive sports. We will do a good job in the home stadium of the China League One and fully support the Yunnan Yukun team in its promotion to the Super League. Focusing on the golden period of summer vacation, we will intensively plan sports and tourism events. From July to September, we will organize and hold more than 40 sports events of various types. At the same time, relying on the cluster of sports venues for the Provincial Games, we will link up with sports venues and outdoor sports training camps in 9 counties (cities and districts) to continue to build the brand of “plateau training resort.” said a relevant person in charge of the Yuxi Municipal Education and Sports Bureau.
On October 5, the 2024 Yuxi Marathon will start. At present, preparations for various events are proceeding in an orderly manner. Mr. Xiong, a “running expert”, is full of expectations. Since 2015, Mr. Xiong has participated in more than 20 marathons and half marathons in and outside the province. In recent years, he has run more than 2,000 kilometers each year. “The Dujiangyan Marathon impressed me the most. When participating, you can enjoy the beautiful scenery of Dujiangyan and Qingcheng Mountain along the way. The Xi’an Marathon is also good. Starting from Yongning Gate, you can appreciate the beauty of the ancient city of Xi’an after running past the bell tower. The competition of the Yunnan Yukun team has heated up the ball market and created a good atmosphere of cultural, sports and tourism integration. I hope that there will be more special products with Yuxi elements on the marathon track, so that more runners can feel the beauty of Yuxi.” Mr. Xiong said. (Reporter Li Wenwen from Yuxi City Media Integration Center)
Short Review
Make full use of the word “integration” to stimulate consumption momentum
□ Biluo
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed to improve the system and mechanism for the in-depth integration of culture and tourism. The provincial party committee also required that reforms be deepened around the upgrading of the cultural and tourism industries, and new breakthroughs be made in cultivating new consumption scenarios and new growth points. This has pointed out the policy direction for Yuxi to promote the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism, and provided a solution.
Yuxi has unique transportation advantages, rich cultural and tourism resources and a good foundation for the development of the sports industry. The hosting of the Chinese Football Association First League home games has made Yuxi popular. However, there are also urgent problems to be solved, such as people cannot stay for long and consumption cannot meet expectations.
As an important carrier for the expansion and upgrading of service consumption, how can Yuxi break the deadlock in the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism? First of all, we must find out the basic resources, promote it at a high level, formulate relevant plans and action plans for the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism, streamline the system and mechanism, promote resource integration, and form a pattern of differentiated development with the Science and Education Innovation City as the core and linkage among various counties (cities and districts).
What is the “traffic code” for the integration of culture, sports and tourism? The core is creative planning. We should optimize the theme planning and operation ideas, and accelerate the innovation of research and study, art and commercial performances, festivals and other methods on the basis of event traffic, professional training and national fitness, so as to create a number of cultural, sports and tourism event brands with sustainable development value. By holding a variety of events, we will create new products, new formats and new models such as “music + tourism”, “performance + tourism”, “event + tourism”, “research and study + tourism” and “health care + tourism”, and constantly unlock new ways of playing, create new demands and drive new consumption.
The cultural, sports and tourism industries are highly correlated and have strong driving force. We should attract traffic through integration, meet demand by enriching consumption scenarios and formats, expand consumption, and truly turn “traffic” into “retention”. We should target target groups, deeply plan consumption content, and accurately push content through online platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, so as to achieve dual-wheel drive of content enrichment and emotional value guidance. We should deepen consumption links, guide young groups to radiate and amplify the drainage effect, fully link night markets, blocks, and business districts to carry out a series of consumption promotion activities, stimulate market vitality, drive consumption upgrades, and truly let cultural, sports and tourism “integrate” large traffic and “combine” new value.