(Yicai) Sept. 3 -- China aims to unlock sports consumption potential and boost the development of its sports industry in the next five years, targeting to lift the industry’s total output to more than CNY7 trillion (USD1.04 trillion) by 2030.

China will enrich consumption scenarios for sports events, optimize consumption environments, and foster a portfolio of high-quality branded tournaments to convert traffic into economic growth, Gao Zhidan, director of the General Administration of Sport of China, said at a press conference held today.

Moreover, the country will advance diversified growth in the fitness and leisure sector, refine the industrial chain for competitive sports events, and roll out a lineup of tech-enabled sporting goods, Gao noted.

The output of China’s sports industry was CNY3.84 trillion (USD571.5 billion) in 2024, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Authorities will pool resources to make breakthroughs in core technologies, covering high-performance competition gear, smart wearable devices, and smart venue systems, to address the fact that China’s sports equipment sector is large yet not strong and suffers from bottlenecks in core components, said Yang Xuedong, director general of the GASC’s Sports Economic Department.

Efforts will be made to accelerate the commercialization of sports technology achievements and nurture home-grown sports manufacturing brands with global competitiveness, Yang noted, adding that authorities will focus on making sports events easy to host and appealing to watch to further grow the event-driven economy.

Making events easy to host mainly means streamlining event approval procedures and lowering barriers and costs for operators, while making them appealing to watch means improving the viewing experience and expanding high-quality event supply to draw larger audiences, Yang explained.

China will leverage sports events for their advantages and multiplier effects to drive coordinated growth across the upstream and downstream segments of the competition industry chain and other related sectors, including catering, accommodation, transportation, tourism, shopping, and entertainment, Yang noted.

Moreover, an event economy ecosystem centered on domestic sports event intellectual property will be built, according to Yang.

The Chinese sports industry should seize opportunities from the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, as innovative digital technology applications will create new models and scenarios for sports consumption, shifting sports services from standardized offerings to personalized solutions, Yang said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione