Sports events spur Guizhou's tourism industry

Guizhou is the venue of the International Mountain Tourism Conference, an annual international event focusing on mountain tourism. [Photo/gywb.com]

In recent years, Southwest China's Guizhou province has strived to develop 100 ecological sports parks, 100 vehicle-friendly camping areas and 100 tourism routes featuring sports.

By holding national and international sports events, Guizhou developed new tourism businesses related to sports, such as base jumping, cave exploration, running and fitness, mountain biking, water sports, winter sports and low-altitude sports.

As China's only province with no plains, 92.5 percent of Guizhou's land area is covered by mountains and hills, making it an ideal place to develop mountain tourism and sports tourism together.

The province's rugged landscape also offers fresh air, cool weather and a pristine environment.

After years of development, Guizhou has held several famous sports events, such as the Guiyang International Marathon, Ziyun Getu International Rock Climbing Festival and Tour of Fanjing Mountain. These three events were all selected as high-quality sports tourism projects in China.

From 2016 to 2020, Guizhou's tourist volume and tourism revenue both had an average annual increase of more than 30 percent, and the province's total tourism revenue ranked third nationally.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic's impact, Guizhou's tourism recovered rapidly when the pandemic began to ease.

In October 2020, Guizhou saw 86.1 million visits and achieved 83.13 billion yuan ($12.81 billion) in tourism revenue, 90.6 percent and 80.5 percent of the pre-pandemic numbers, respectively.

Right before last year's National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, Guizhou released 62 sports tourism routes to connect the province's scenic spots through sports activities and provide more choices for tourists.