Hangzhou Asiad boosts sports industry &consumption: official

HANGZHOU, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Hangzhou Asian Games, which coincides with China's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, has drawn widespread public attention, generating a strong growth in sports industry and sports consumption, said an official from Chinese delegation.

"The Hangzhou Asian Games is boosting the economy in three aspects: substantial growth of tourism in Hangzhou, upsurge of sports consumption around the country, and impulse into the development of sports industry," Yang Xuedong, director of Sports Economy Department of State Sport General Administration told Xinhua here on Saturday.

Statistics show that Hangzhou was among the top three domestic tourist destinations during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, with the overall tourism orders during the Asian Games skyrocketed by 279 percent year-on-year.

From September 23 to 30, Hangzhou had received a total of 21.846 million tourists, an increase of 106.1 percent from the 10.6 million of the same period last year, highlighting the huge economic benefits brought by the Asian Games to the host city.

"Driven by the Hangzhou Asian Games, the public's awareness of fitness has been significantly enhanced," Yang said. "More than 6,000 fitness activities of all kinds were carried out during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day break, with more than 3.3 million getting involved."

Yang noted that many tourists had the sports as their top priorities during their holiday travels, adding, "We jointly delivered 12 high-quality sports tourism routes with the State Ministry of Culture and Tourism before the holidays, aiming to meet the public's needs for outdoor sports."

Yang added that the Hangzhou Asian Games would further stimulate the city's participation and investment in the performance industry relative to contests and competitions.

"Smart technologies have played an important role throughout the Hangzhou Asian Games, from venue design, spectator experience, advanced digital technology, to a series of intelligent applications," Yang said.

"The smart technologies will promote the application of 5G, big data and cloud computing among other new technologies in the sports industry, cultivating new formats and models."

Robots have been put into use during the Hangzhou Asiad, for tasks such as fetching javelins at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium and transporting packages at the Main Media Center, showing the potential of robots for broader prospects.

"The Asian Games has had a comprehensive and long-term impact on economic development and the sports industry, creating multiple opportunities yet to be seen," Yang added.