GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 17, 2018 — On December 11, China Sports Culture Expo & China Sports Tourism Expo 2018 (CSCTE 2018) opened in Guangzhou. With the theme “New Era, New Sports, New Life”, the three-day event included the main conference “China International Sports Culture & Tourism Summit”, Sports Directors’ Forum and parallel forums. Hundreds of guests, including domestic and foreign industrial leaders, experts and scholars, senior executives of renowned enterprises, celebrated investors and entrepreneurs, delivered speeches and participated in dialogues. They interpreted the development trend of sports culture and tourism, and explored new ideas for the upgrading of China’s sports industry.
Main forum focus on national strategies
Remarkably, CSCTE 2018 was held under the guidance of the new thought in the new era. It tallies with the overall situation of sports reform and development and accords with the development strategy of China’s sports industry.
At “China International Sports Culture & Tourism Summit”, Tu Xiaodong, Director of the Press and Publicity Department of General Administration of Sport of China (GAS); Poul-Erik Hoyer, President of Badminton World Federation; Burton Shipley, FIBA Central Board Member, FIBA Oceania President and Chairman of Coordination Commission of FIBA Basketball World Cup China 2019; and Timothy T. T. FOK, President of Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, delivered keynote speeches.
Then Jose Damiani, President of International Mind Sports Association; Gianni Merlo, President of International Sports Press Association; Hugo Shong, Founding Chairman of IDG Capital; Zhang Li, Vice President of IDG China; Xu Haifeng, China’s first Olympic goal medalist; and Gao Min, China’s first Olympic gold medalist on springboard, attended a dialogue. Under the theme of “New Era, New Sports, New Life”, they discussed sports industry transformation and upgrading, local sports culture development, the building of characteristic local sports tourism items and other issues.
Sports Directors’ Forum was held during the main forum. Directors of sports bureaus of provinces and autonomous regions including Jiangsu, Shanxi, Hubei and Qinghai offered opinions and suggestions on the cultivation of Chinese athletes, the development of China sports culture & tourism industry and other issues.
The parallel forums focus on sports industry innovation and development
To promote the rapid and healthy development of China’s sports industry, Sports Business Forum was held on the afternoon of December 11, Olympic Culture Development Forum, Museum Curators’ Forum, Sports Culture & Tourism Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and VC Forum, Culture & Tourism Industry Development Forum, Sports Marketing and Sports Event IP Forum, Youth Sports Development Forum, Winter Sports Industry Forum and other parallel forums were held on December 12.
Organizers and operators of world top sports events were invited to Sports Business Forum. Under the theme of “Sports Business-New Idea for Integrated Development”, the attendees discussed the industrial trend of integrated development of sports business, resource transformation, the collaborative development of industries and other issues, presenting an international business exchange feast to domestic sports practitioners.
Sports Culture & Tourism Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and VC Forum, organized by International Data Group (IDG), attracted innovation & start-up enterprises in fields such as sports culture, sports tourism and cultural creativity. The competition covered the traditional sports industry, sports+ Internet, new sports business, sports events, the cultural industry, tourism and other fields. The organizer provided capital and all-round software & hardware support for the participating teams and enterprises.
The Culture & Tourism Industry Development Forum invited guests from provincial and municipal tourism administrations, scenic spot operators, institutional investors, real estate developers, OTAs and other fields, to discuss the development orientation of the sports culture & tourism industry and the problems arising in the implementation of culture & tourism projects, and planned for the future development of the culture & tourism industry, thereby promoting the prosperity of the culture & tourism industry.
The Sports Marketing and Sports Event IP Forum invited operators and sponsors of branded sports events, as well as law firms, for a roundtable dialogue themed “Online-Offline Integrated Sports Event Brand Marketing”. The attendees discussed the practical methodology of sports events and business marketing, to promote the development of the sports industry.
Thanks to national policy dividends for sports and the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, China’s winter sports industry enjoys bright prospect. At Winter Sports Industry Forum on December 12, with focus on the shortage of China’s winter sports professionals, the poor operations and imbalanced development of skating rinks and ski resorts, and other problems, international winter sports associations and operators delivered keynote speeches and shared their experience, to offer constructive solutions for winter sports development in China.
Chinese and foreign experts underline talent cultivation and cultural heritance
Apart from the forums focusing on the innovative development of the sports industry, Olympic Culture Development Forum, Museum Curators’ Forum and Youth Sports Development Forum were also held during CSCTE 2018.
The Olympic Culture Development Forum invited Olympic culture research experts, leaders of international sports federations and experts at Olympic venue operation, to discuss the development plan and layout of Olympic culture in cities, the post-games use of venues, international cultural cooperation and exchanges between a number of important topics. At Museum Curators’ Forum, the attendees discussed the relations between studies of museums (especially sports museums), social progress and sports development, and exchanged ideas on technology upgrading, innovative development and professional talent training with focus on the future development of modern museums. “Strong youths lead to a strong country”. The Youth Sports Development Forum invited university presidents, to discuss the development of China’s youth sports and the solution for talent cultivation with Chinese and foreign sports educators, government officials and sports entrepreneurs.
The substantial parallel forums running for two days gained unanimous praise from the attendees.
Fabulous interactive experience, diverse supporting activities
CSCTE 2018 featured five highlights: international vision, professional market operation, crossover integration, characteristic sports culture experience, coordinated development of “Belt and Road” regions.
In addition to professional and international forums, CSCTE 2018 included six thematic zones: Sports Culture Zone, Sports Culture & Tourism Creativity Zone, Sports Organization Zone, Regional Sports Culture & Tourism Zone, Sports Technology and Broad Health Zone, Sports Brand Zone, as well as more than 10 supporting activities. They showed the new look of Chinese sports culture and presented a lively interactive sports culture experience.
CSCTE 2018 will activate the sports spirit of the public, tell more beautiful Chinese sports stories, and integrate with the global sports industry to achieve win-win results and usher in a new era for the sports development of China.
SOURCE IDG Sports