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Tourism has emerged as a vital industry for many economies globally (Mathias & Shinoda, 2022), and sports tourism is a crucial subsector of the tourism industry (Zeng et al., 2023). By integrating sports events such as competition, entertainment, experience, and challenge into tourism, sports tourism offers a unique blend of sports and tourism that is a popular choice among enthusiasts in China (Adebola, 2022). Global data from the International Sports Tourism Committee show that sports tourism accounts for more than 30% of the world’s tourism revenue (Na et al., 2021).
Hainan Province, China is located in the central part of the South China Sea, with a geographic coordinate of 30 ° E, accounting for 30% of world tourism revenue (Na et al., 2021). The province’s location makes it the southernmost and only tropical island province in China, positioning it as an ideal destination for sports tourism with its cultural, geographical, and natural advantages (Lejie, 2021). Hainan Province has made significant strides in developing the sports tourism industry through resource development, route planning, and product design, leading to the creation of various sports tourism projects (Jayathilake et al., 2021). Thus, the sports tourism industry in Hainan Province has achieved remarkable results. However, there remains a need to identify existing shortcomings in the industry and address them, leveraging the regional advantages of Hainan Province to develop a sports tourism industry that authentically embodies the characteristics of the region (Zamora et al., 2022).
The digital economy has a strong impetus to promote industrial upgrading and development, and at the same time, the scale of the digital economy is huge (Cao et al., 2022). The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has made strategic plans for building a digital China, a cyber-power, and a smart society, proposing to vigorously develop the digital economy and promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet, big data and the real economy (Rosalia & Zainal, 2021). In this regard, Rasmusen et al. (2022) mentioned the knowledge graph and the use of gamification to enhance individuals’ understanding of legal knowledge, which is clearly related to the author’s discussion on how digitalization can promote the transformation of traditional sports tourism. Similarly, Hu et al. (2022) studied the effect of the application of Semantic Web technology in the education system, which can stimulate people to think and explore the application of digitalization in industrial upgrading. Tembhurne et al. (2022) proposed a novel solution for fake news detection by applying deep learning models, which also demonstrates the gradual innovation of digitization in various industries. Faced with the opportunities and challenges brought by the digital economy, how should the sports industry grasp the opportunities and face the challenges? First of all, China’s advanced network application technology and huge user base support new business formats such as Internet and sports, digital and sports, and AI and sports. Secondly, the digital economy will promote the integrated development of the sports industry. Finally, the digitalization of sports services implies the use of digital technology to upgrade and transform services in the sports service industry, thereby improving service quality and efficiency (Burukina, 2021). Therefore, as an important part of the sports industry, sports tourism has a strong service industry attribute, and it should be an industry with a high degree of digitalization. However, digitalization is still in the exploratory stage in promoting the integration of sports tourism, and the integration is not enough, resulting in problems such as poor consumer travel experience, low utilization of sports resources, and small product scale (Li, 2021). Consumers and enterprises have not found their own appropriate subject values in value positioning, resulting in the dislocation of subject values and unsatisfactory development of the sports tourism industry.