Exciting and diverse sports events stir up the rural tourism market, and the "competition town run" model is being explored and practiced in Xiaokunshan Town
A few days ago, the Shanghai Urban Amateur League "Xiaokunshan Cup" Shanghai Third Rural Ironman Triathlon kicked off at the Xiaokunshan Modern Agricultural Park in Songjiang District. More than 550 triathlon enthusiasts gather here to enjoy the dual fun of sports competition and rural scenery.
Not long ago, the 7th Rural Parent Child Health Run of the 2023 "Xiaokunshan Cup" in Shanghai, known as the "First Rural Run in Shanghai", has just ended, and the heat has not dissipated. The sports activities and competitions between green mountains and clear waters, one after another, have given local rural tourism a new acceleration.
"Many contestants arrived one or two days in advance to familiarize themselves with the competition. Some stayed overnight and consumed as tourists on a family basis." Lu Xuefeng, the Party Secretary of Xiaokunshan Town, told reporters that after the "explosive sales" of fast hotels such as Vienna and Quanji in the town, tourists overflowed to areas such as Sheshan and Guangfulin. In order to provide tourists with a place to stay, a place to stay, and a place to play, Xiaokunshan Town not only improves supporting facilities such as food and accommodation, but also develops water projects such as kayaking and boat model competitions to enrich the tourist experience.
Through the new model of "competition town management", sports events have activated the dormant rural resources of Xiaokunshan Town, achieving the integrated development of agriculture, sports and tourism, and continuously injecting momentum into rural tourism. Therefore, the exploration and practice of Xiaokunshan Town in recent years is worth paying attention to.
Starting with paddleboards, accelerating while cycling, and sprinting while running... Compared with previous editions, the third edition of the "Xiaokunshan Cup" Shanghai Rural Ironman Triathlon not only includes a 1-kilometer paddleboard, 22.5-kilometer cycling, and 5.5-kilometer regular iron three piece set, but also adds relatively low entry barriers to participate in the paddleboard individual group and iron three relay race. The flexible competition system, combined with the beautiful rural scenery along the way, ignited the enthusiasm of citizens to participate.
Naming the event based on the town domain name, we aim to create a unique event that integrates sports industry, ecological rural areas, and tourism and leisure, which is the first time in Shanghai. Why focus on hosting sports events? In Lu Xuefeng's view, developing a characteristic town that integrates culture and tourism is not enough just with pleasant scenery. We need to focus on "sports+leisure" and "sports+tourism", continuously improve the reception capacity of Xiaokunshan as a cultural and tourism town to host large-scale events through the new model of "competition town", enrich sports tourism elements, attract more sports tourism enthusiasts, and enhance the popularity of the "Erlu" cultural town.
"The number of applicants this year has doubled compared to previous years, with half of them coming from other places, greatly increasing their coverage." Xia Wenbin, manager of Xiaokunshan Town Tourism Development Co., Ltd., said that many contestants will come to Xiaokunshan in advance for pre competition training and experience the local customs and traditions.
The core area of the modern agriculture demonstration zone in Xiaokunshan Town covers an area of 16800 acres, including 10000 acres of grain fields, 1000 acres of fish ponds, 300 acres of vegetables, and 100 acres of rapeseed flower fields. With excellent agricultural natural resources, it is the foundation for the development of the "beautiful economy" of rural tourism in Xiaokunshan Town.
After the competition, each contestant received a small bag of Songjiang rice and a box of local eggs as local specialties. But in the minds of the contestants, the neat and uniform ten thousand acres of fertile land and the crisscrossing road network between mountains and rivers in Xiaokunshan are the true "local specialties". "Coming from the reinforced concrete urban forest to the mountains and rivers to experience pastoral songs, running freely in the farmland, this is the unique charm of Xiaokunshan," said the contestant.
In the view of Zhao Quan, Deputy Director of the Songjiang District Sports Bureau, compared to cities with every inch of land and every inch of gold, rural areas have rich resources of "mountains, waters, forests, fields, lakes, grass, and sand". Conducting specific sports events here will promote the formation of distinctive sports event brands.
"Sports are an important means of upgrading consumption and driving consumption. Sports can gather a large number of people in a short period of time. In addition to participating in the process of sports, it is accompanied by consumption of sports goods, services, catering, accommodation, transportation, as well as other forms of consumption such as tourism and leisure." Zhao Quan said that with the development of sports, sports events can also "break through boundaries" and become a "local specialty" of the region, becoming a fulcrum for rural revitalization.
Breaking through the competition also means that Xiaokunshan Town's popularity has gone out of the circle. Compared to the more professional triathlon, the rural parent-child health run has a more significant effect in stimulating rural vitality. The 7th Rural Parent Child Health Run of the "Xiaokunshan Cup" in Shanghai in 2023 attracted 1200 parent-child families to participate, completing a pastoral style "Shanghai's Most Beautiful Competition", which had a significant impact on accommodation and catering in Xiaokunshan Town.
A few days ago, the first homestay land parcel in Xiaokunshan Town was delisted, which is to provide supporting facilities for the construction of a cultural and sports town. "This land was won by Li Yi Tian She, a professional tourism operation enterprise, with the intention of creating homestays and boutique hotels in the future." The relevant person in charge of Xiaokunshan Town introduced that the project covers an area of 7336.7 square meters, with 10000 acres of good farmland on the north side and a Hengshan pond on the south side. Both the east and west sides are natural green forests, and the overall environment is beautiful with convenient access. While creating high-quality homestays and boutique hotels, the project team will also incorporate wellness, live streaming, functional vegetables, and more.
The core strategy for the construction of the "Erlu" cultural town in Xiaokunshan is to establish a platform for sports attraction and perform cultural and tourism projects. "It is expected that the annual passenger flow will exceed one million people in the future." The relevant person in charge of Xiaokunshan Town said that the ancient and modern should complement each other, and the history and future should blend, creating a "poetry and distance" for the leisure and vacation of surrounding citizens.
It is revealed that the "Erlu" cultural town project will be arranged with tourism resources in accordance with the "One Core, One Belt, and Four Clusters". "One Core" is Xiaokunshan Garden, which includes Jiufeng Zen Temple and "Erlu" Reading Platform. The "Belt and Road" is a water system that surrounds the project, forming the characteristics of a water town in Jiangnan. The "Four Groups" are four functional groups, namely "the source of humanity", "the garden of fields", "the origin of science and technology innovation", and "the element of digital chains", covering core projects such as cultural blocks, cultural and creative water streets, vacation hotels, natural science popularization schools, digital culture headquarters, and Tangcun Temple Rural Park.
