Research on China's marathon tourism development under belt and road

Abstract

Against the backdrop of China’s "Belt and Road" strategy and the rapid development of marathon events in the country, the direction and pathways for integrating marathons with other industries have become a topic worthy of study. Using methods such as literature review, expert discussions, and field research, this paper investigates and analyzes the current state and existing issues in China’s marathon event tourism industry. Building on this analysis and in conjunction with China’s "Belt and Road" strategic deployment, suggestions are proposed to accelerate the development of marathon event tourism under the new circumstances: enhancing the understanding of marathon development trends and formulating policies to promote event tourism; establishing a domestic multi-party coordination mechanism to jointly advance marathon event tourism; strengthening planning guidance and developing specialized "Belt and Road" regional marathon event tourism plans; creating high-quality marathons with "Belt and Road" characteristics and enriching the tourism product system related to events; standardizing the operational and management regulations for event tourism companies; and leveraging the role of new media to expand promotional approaches for marathon event tourism.