[Guangming Times Review] Booming sports consumption injects new momentum into development
During the Spring Festival holiday of the Year of the Rabbit, China’s urban and rural areas ushered in the long-lost pyrotechnics. Consumption such as tourism and catering is booming. Crowds are crowded on the streets of cities, and the consumer market is booming again.
In the rising fireworks, sports consumption has become a unique and beautiful landscape.
In Beijing, the "Double Olympic City", Shougang Park attracted more than 176,000 people to the park during the holidays with ice and snow activities such as "Ice and Snow Festival" and "Show Ice Rink", with a total sales of over 8 million yuan.
In Nanjing, more than 50 new sports consumption scenes attracted 300,000 people to check in, driving consumption to over 200 million yuan.
In Yunnan, sports such as camping and Frisbee drive the local economy and become a new landscape beyond scenic spots.
The popularity of gymnasiums around the world reaches its peak during the holidays. While offline sports consumption is booming, online sports consumption is also booming. Sports equipment, home sports equipment, wristbands and other digital sports products are selling well.
The outstanding performance of sports consumption during the Spring Festival holiday is expected, and it also brings inspiration for the long-term development of the sports industry.
In the future, we should expand the scale of my country's sports industry by optimizing the supply of sports, further activate consumption, and stimulate domestic demand.
According to the data of the State Sports General Administration, in 2020, the proportion of people who regularly participate in physical exercise in my country will reach 37.2%, and the total size of the sports industry will be 2,737.2 billion yuan.
The "National Fitness Plan (2021-2025)" issued by the State Council puts forward the goal that by 2025, the total scale of my country's sports industry will reach 5 trillion yuan, and the proportion of people who regularly participate in physical exercise will reach 38.5%.
Compared with the sports industry in Europe and the United States, my country's sports industry still has a lot of room for growth.
In 2012, my country's sports industry accounted for 0.6% of GDP in that year, and the proportion rose to 1.06% in 2020, which is a significant improvement, but there is still a gap compared with the global average of 2%, and a larger gap from the 3% of European and American countries.
The strong support of policies and the superposition of huge potential development space have created new development opportunities for my country's sports industry.
The key to developing and expanding the sports industry lies in optimizing supply.
In the field of sporting goods, many representative sportswear brands have emerged in my country. In the future, we should focus on the integration of sportswear brands with national trends and fashion, and use design capabilities to build a reputation and brand of "Made in China".
In addition, the sporting goods category should continue to expand. The deep integration of smart electronic devices such as VR and wristbands with the sports industry will bring new consumer demand. These devices can also provide users with more complete sports planning when connected to online platforms.
In the offline field of sports services, multiple measures should be taken to meet the people's growing sports needs.
The first is to further increase the supply of stadium infrastructure and expand outdoor sports space.
It includes general sports venues, such as football and basketball venues, as well as some special sports venues, such as ski resorts and skating rinks for ice and snow events, increasing the options for outdoor sports for residents.
Furthermore, "sports + tourism" has become a new driving force for the development of the sports industry, such as the popular ice and snow sports during the Spring Festival holiday, the popular water sports in summer, and the camping that has emerged in recent years. The planning and investment in the construction of related supporting facilities should be strengthened , fully meet the emerging sports consumer demand.
In the online field of sports services, the main supply development direction is "sports + content".
Focusing on "food, clothing, exercise", disseminate scientific and reasonable sports concepts, and use sports as a link to socialize.
In the future, with digital intelligent sports health monitoring equipment, sports and health monitoring will be combined to create an integrated sports and health ecosystem. While providing users with a better sports experience, it will also open up diversified development paths for sports service companies.
On the whole, with the end of the epidemic, the demand for sports will explode again, and the popularity of sports consumption will not be limited to holidays, but will return to the daily life of residents.
The sports industry is an important part of the consumer market. Under the background of expanding domestic demand, the leapfrog development of the sports industry will inject new momentum into economic development.
(Author: Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Joint Business School)
Guangming Daily