Promoting Tourism via Sports: Provincial Sports Meeting Invigorated Industry Integration and Development of “Sports+Tourism” in Leshan, Sichuan Province

On August 15th, The 14th Sichuan Provincial Sports Meeting (hereinafter referred to as the “Provincial Sports Meeting”) was in fierce competition for the finals of track and field, swimming and badminton, which were also the last three competitions of this Provincial Sports Meeting.

Leshan Olympic Center, located in Suji New District of Leshan, is the main venue of this Provincial Sports Meeting. The center includes “one stadium and three venues”-stadium, gymnasium, swimming pool, comprehensive training hall, industrial supporting rooms, underground garage and equipment rooms, outdoor sports ground, etc., with a total area of about 339 mu and a total construction area of 207,800 square meters, which can accommodate 40,000 people to watch the games at the same time.On August 8th, the opening ceremony of the Provincial Sports Meeting was held here.

The holding of the Provincial Sports Meeting created a new milestone for the development of sports in Leshan. Taking the opportunity of holding the Provincial Sports Meeting, Leshan upgraded the original gymnasium, stadium and swimming pool of Leshan Sports Center, and built new sports facilities such as five-a-side indoor football hall and comprehensive training hall.

The renovation of sports venues is not only to meet the needs of the competition, but also to serve the national fitness after the competition. Xiang Lei, director of Leshan Sports Bureau, said that before, Leshan Sports Center lacked indoor venues and children’s sports areas, and the football field utilization rate was low. After the renovation, a 300-square-meter children’s basketball court was added to Leshan Sports Center, and the central football stadium was all replaced with artificial turf, so as to reduce the maintenance and operation costs and facilitate the citizens to play football.

“Stand out of the hosting to see the venue construction.” Xiang Lei said that Leshan has been looking for the best scheme between hosting the sports meeting, running the city and benefiting the people. For this reason, the construction of 28 newly-built and renovated venues in the city has been promoted in accordance with the general idea of “changing without building, and distributing all over the world”.

To realize not only national fitness, but also global development. Leshan has also built or renovated a number of stadiums and facilities in key districts, cities and counties. “According to the development of sports projects in districts, cities and counties, we choose the optimized layout of project venues with a good mass base and implement the upgrading construction.” For example, the newly-built hockey rinks and pulley rinks in Qianwei No.1 Middle School and The Engineering & Technical College of Chengdu University of Technology is the layout according to the school’s advantageous projects.

Sports, in addition to strengthening people’s health, is also an industry that empowers economic development. In the era of national fitness, in addition to the development of traditional sports, more recreational “sports+” industries such as Panda Feilada Rock Climbing and No.63 Self-driving Camp have sprung up in Leshan. During the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” period, Leshan Emei Martial Arts Institute was established, and in-depth cooperation between schools and places was carried out. The cooperation base of Leshan Emei Martial Arts Institute and Qingjiang base of Leshan Emei Martial Arts Institute were listed and registered with regional trademarks such as Emei School and Kung Fu Emei. It continued to develop related cultural and creative products, launched the tourism route of “Climbing Mount Emei, Walking in one’s own Jianghu”, and submitted the first eye-catching answer sheet for the future trend of Leshan’s “Sports+” industry.

“Play brilliantly in the game, eat well and play well after the game.” Chen Xiaohong, head of the Arts Section of Leshan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, said that as a big cultural and tourism city, Leshan should not only provide “hospitality” for the participants, but also seize this the marketing opportunity of the city. From June to August, during the Provincial Sports Meeting, Leshan held a series of cultural and sports activities, including the exhibition of Sichuan sports achievements and intangible cultural heritage of Sichuan sports, so as to integrate sports with cultural tourism and form a new image for Leshan.

As a comprehensive sports event with the highest specification, the largest scale and the widest influence in our province, more than 20,000 participants in the Provincial Sports Meeting came to Leshan. If each participant is accompanied by three people, more than 80,000 people came to Leshan during the Provincial Sports Meeting, which brought more than 200,000 tourists to Leshan. In order to attract participants to stay, Leshan City has introduced a number of scenic spots free of charge policies. Besides, Leshan also issued vouchers for the Provincial Sports Meeting in July, which promoted the integrated development of “sports+tourism”.

Driving sports via scenery and promoting tourism via sports, Leshan is becoming a sample of the integrated development of sports and tourism. “In the next step, we will launch a series of sports and tourism integration projects such as light adventure one after another, so that the popularity of the Provincial Sports Meeting will boost the development of the cultural and tourism industry.” Xiang Lei said.

 

Leshan Olympic Center

 

Men’s Triple Jump Final in Group A of Provincial Sports Meeting 

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