Sports Boost Consumption: Hot Events Unleash Wuhan's Spending Potential

The Wuhan Open Tennis Tournament, the Women's AFC Champions League, the World Snooker Wuhan Open... Starting from late September, major sports events have been frequently held in Wuhan, sparking a wave of sports consumption among residents and potentially driving the total scale of Wuhan's sports consumption for the year to reach 44 billion yuan.

On the evening of the 13th, at the Optics Valley International Tennis Center, the women's singles final of the Wuhan Open was underway, with all 15,000 seats filled and the audience's enthusiasm high, resonating with the final players Sabalenka and Zheng Qinwen. Outside the venue, nearly a hundred booths were bustling with activity: the "Buy Excitement" market gathered sportswear, fitness equipment, smart wearables, and sports fashion trends; on the "LOVE Wuhan Open" grandstand, band performances, Coser parades, street dance, and other entertainment shows took turns; the food street gathered a variety of Han-style cuisines, with citizens and tourists enjoying eating and playing.

First Financial Daily reporters noted that for Wuhan, this year's "National Day" Golden Week is also a "Golden Week of Events," with the Wuhan Open Tennis Tournament, the 2024 Chinese Speed Horse Racing Points Race, the inaugural Women's AFC Champions League, the World Snooker Wuhan Open, and other international competitions held one after another, significantly increasing the number of tourists.

According to preliminary statistics, during the 2024 Wuhan Sports Golden Autumn Consumption Season, events such as the Wuhan Open Carnival and the Wuhan Billiards Industry Expo attracted nearly 200 entities involved in sports equipment production, venue services, education and training, and 300,000 citizens and tourists, driving consumption of nearly 1 billion yuan.

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Not only in the golden autumn season, but throughout this year, Wuhan has focused on the integration and innovation of culture, sports, and tourism, singing the "Four Seasons Song" of sports events: the Wuhan Marathon in spring, the Crossing the River Festival in summer, the Wuhan Open in autumn, and the Mass Ice and Snow Season in winter. During the Wuhan Marathon, 53,000 tourists came to Wuhan, creating a city benefit of 1.571 billion yuan, with an economic impact of about 557 million yuan and a social impact of about 1.014 billion yuan.

Lei Lijun, Director of the Wuhan Sports Bureau, said that currently, sports consumption has gradually become an important part of implementing the strategy to expand domestic demand and enhance the internal driving force of the domestic large cycle. Wuhan is actively exploring the innovative model of "sports +" integrated development, helping Wuhan to cultivate and build an international consumption center city by building platforms, innovating sports consumption scenarios, and extending the sports industry chain.

Statistics show that Wuhan's total sports output value has increased from 53.1 billion yuan in 2020 to 85.6 billion yuan in 2023, with an average annual growth rate of 15%. In the first half of this year, Wuhan's total sports consumption exceeded 21.5 billion yuan. Next, Wuhan will carry out a series of sports-themed consumption activities, striving to achieve a total sports consumption scale of 44 billion yuan for the year.

How to further convert sports traffic into consumption increment? Guo Xuejun, head of the Wuhan commercial department of DTZ, told First Financial Daily reporters that from a commercial operation perspective, first, the venue and its surrounding areas should strengthen the construction of a comprehensive sports format gathering, actively explore the integration development model of "sports +" other formats, introduce upstream and downstream industries such as catering, training, leisure and entertainment, and form a normalized operation system, increasing more consumption experiences and opportunities besides watching the game during the event.

At the same time, the operation and atmosphere creation of the venue during non-event periods can be strengthened, holding various sports activities and market commercial activities to extend the flow of people and achieve continuous consumption transformation of traffic. "This puts higher requirements on the preliminary planning and design and refined operation capabilities of the sports venue and surrounding commercial projects, requiring the introduction of richer and more novel brands to meet the diversified needs of consumers, build a more complete consumption loop, and achieve comprehensive coverage from attracting traffic, improving experience, promoting consumption to word-of-mouth communication." Guo Xuejun said, taking the upgrade and transformation of Beijing's new Workers' Stadium as an example, the new Workers' Stadium has achieved full interconnection of sports venues, urban parks, and commercial spaces through effective resource integration and in-depth operation, promoting the integrated development of culture, commerce, tourism, and sports, and becoming a new landmark of diverse consumption in Beijing.

Guo Xuejun suggested that compared to first-tier cities, Wuhan can further improve the scale of events and the number of introductions of top international sports events, attracting more influential international events to be held in Wuhan in addition to the Wuhan Open Tennis Tournament and the World Snooker Wuhan Open; at the same time, by drawing on the "Village BA" "Village Super" and other out-of-circle events, cultivate and create local特色的 sports event IPs. In addition, to further promote the development of the sports industry and form a more complete sports industry chain, Wuhan should also increase support for local sports enterprises and introduce more well-known sports enterprises and brands to increase investment.