A glimpse of the game
With the smooth progress of the second "Tonglin Holiday Laozhou Cup" football match in 2024, this event is gradually becoming a new "business card" for the integration of sports and tourism in Wuzhishan and even Hainan. Chen Guoliang, deputy secretary of the Wuzhishan Municipal Party Committee and mayor of Wuzhishan Municipal Government, accepted a special interview to disclose the story behind the event and reveal the role of the event in promoting the integration of local sports and tourism.
Chen Guoliang, deputy secretary of the Wuzhishan Municipal Party Committee and mayor of the municipal government
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: The group stage of the second edition of the "Old State Cup" has ended, which teams or players have impressed you with their performances?
Chen Guoliang: The group stage of this year's "Laozhou Cup" has been completed, and the knockout round will be held in mid-to-late May. During the group stage, the players showed a high level of football skills and game spirit. Zhanjiang Longren Football Club has formed a "diverse" team. The players of CCCC Ruitong team are executives and engineers on weekdays, and they are explosive athletes on game days. Overall, each team showed quality and a good spirit. Fans and media at all levels also paid a lot of attention to the game, and the number of live video views of the game alone exceeded 400,000.
A glimpse of the game
Q: The Old State Cup is a young tournament and you have been following the organization of the tournament from start to finish. Did you encounter any challenges in organizing the event?
Chen Guoliang: The tight time and heavy tasks are the characteristics and difficulties of the organization of this year's event. For example, from the registration deadline to the official start of the competition, it took less than a month, and this year there were 24 teams and more than 1,000 participants. The organizing committee successfully completed all the preparatory work. On the day of the competition, the staff shuttled back and forth, hard work, and won universal recognition.
In order to be a good host and let all the participating teams feel the "temperature of the mountain city", all departments in our city have unified overall planning and scheduling, and earnestly do a good job in police deployment, volunteer arrangement, medical security, smooth communication, publicity and reporting, etc., so as to achieve "logistics guarantee and competition strength".
A glimpse of the game
Q: What highlights or special activities do you think are worth looking forward to in the knockout stage of the "Old State Cup"? How can the event further deepen the integration with the local culture and tourism resources of Wuzhishan City?
Chen Guoliang: The "Old State Mansion" in the name of the event carries the far-reaching historical imprint and rich cultural connotation of Wuzhishan as a famous historical city in Hainan. In the next stage, we will continue to do a good job in ensuring the event, and on the day of the competition, we have carefully arranged a series of activities such as Wuzhishan tourism and food promotion. During the semi-finals and finals, there will also be a variety of interactive performances and awards.
Events such as the "Old State Cup" ignite the fireworks at night in Emerald Mountain City. From the warm-up of the event to the present, Wuzhishan City has received more than 255,500 tourists. According to incomplete statistics, the number of visitors to food courts and hotels increased significantly compared to usual on weekend and competition days. The city's tourism-related enterprises and businesses have issued a series of preferential policies for the event, which is convenient for the participating teams and spectators to go to Wuzhishan for food, housing, transportation, shopping, and entertainment.
By holding events such as the "Laozhou Cup", we have deeply explored the creation of a local characteristic sports and cultural tourism consumption season with the "sports + tourism" model, and helped Wuzhishan City to build a tourism and consumption center city in central Hainan, a mountain folk sports tourism experience area, and a tropical rainforest ethnic characteristic sports tourism area. We are confident that the "Laozhou Cup" will become a beautiful new "business card" for the integration of sports and tourism in Wuzhishan.
A glimpse of the game
Q: What positive impact has the "Laozhou Cup" event had on the socio-economic, sports and cultural development of Wuzhishan City and even Hainan?
Chen Guoliang, Deputy Secretary of the Wuzhishan Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of the Municipal People's Government: In 2023, the successful holding of the first "Laozhou Government Cup" has promoted the integrated development of sports tourism, created a good atmosphere for national fitness, and expanded the image of Wuzhishan as a tourist city. The second "Laozhou Cup" is more than the first team, a total of 24 teams, and reached the scale of the European Cup, but also ushered in the first time outside the province team to participate in the competition, but also the largest team in the history of Hainan Province, the team members are regardless of nationality, region, age, occupation, this event has become the highest level of competition in Hainan, the most influential football event, the influence is gradually spilling over.
In terms of direct impact, the "Laozhou Cup" has directly promoted the economic income of tourism-related industries such as hotel accommodation, catering services, and transportation by attracting audiences and tourists, and has brought significant economic benefits to Wuzhishan City and its surrounding areas. At the same time, the preparation and holding of the event requires a large amount of material and service support, which has driven the development of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.
In terms of indirect influence, the "Laozhou Cup" football match has become one of the engines for the improvement of cultural soft power in Wuzhishan City and even Hainan. It not only deepens the public's understanding and pride in the city's history and culture, but also effectively disseminates Hainan's unique regional culture through the in-depth integration of sports and culture, and enhances the recognition and interest of the outside world in local culture. At the same time, it serves as a platform for education and inspiration, motivates young people to devote themselves to sports, and opens up new ways for the cultivation of regional sports talents and the improvement of the education system, which will provide a steady stream of internal motivation and sustainable social benefits for the comprehensive development of Wuzhishan and even Hainan in the long run.
A glimpse of the game
Q: What is the long-term plan or vision of Wuzhishan City for the future development of the "Laozhou Cup" football competition?
Chen Guoliang, Deputy Secretary of the Wuzhishan Municipal Party Committee, Mayor of the Municipal People's Government: This "Laozhou Cup" is also the 8th China Staff Football League Hainan Grassroots Competition, and the champion of the event will represent Hainan to participate in the 8th China Staff Football League National Finals. There are four Chinese championship teams that have stood out from the China Staff Football League, among which the Chinese team won the first world championship in the history of Chinese football in the 4th World Enterprise Games. Therefore, Hainan netizens call this event the Wuzhishan or Hainan Football Intercontinental Tournament. Wuzhishan will take this event as an opportunity to continue to build the "Laozhou Cup" brand event, promote the development of the new business format of "sports + cultural tourism", continue this Hainan sports feast, and make efforts from the perspective of laying a solid foundation and cultivating grassroots football culture, stimulate the cultivation of youth football talents, promote the high-quality development of Hainan football sports, accompany Chinese football on a new long march, and make positive contributions to the high-quality development of sports tourism in Wuzhishan City and the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port.
Chen Guoliang, deputy secretary of the Wuzhishan Municipal Party Committee and mayor of the municipal government