Convergence Evaluation of Sports and Tourism Industries in Urban Agglomeration of Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and Its Spatial-Temporal Evolution

Abstract

The convergence of sports and tourism industries is a vital direction for the coordinated development of industries, and a vital means to build a quality life circle suitable for living, working and traveling in the urban agglomeration of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). By using the coupling coordination degree model and exploratory spatial data analysis and establishing an evaluating indicator system for the converged development of sports and tourism industries, this paper measures and analyzes the convergence development level, spatial-temporal evolution, and spatial correlation of the two industries in 11 cities of GBA from 2011 to 2020. The results showed that the synthetical development level of the two industries in urban agglomeration of GBA was steadily rising, with significant differences in regional development, showing the east coast of GBA > the north coast of GBA > the west coast of GBA. The growth trend of industrial convergence degree is obvious, but the overall coupling coordination degree is not high, basically in the late maladjustment stage and transition stage. The convergence of the two industries shows a positive aggregation distribution in space, and the degree of agglomeration is rising. Cities around the Pearl River Estuary mostly belong to the “high-high” spatial association type, with obvious spillover effect, and become a significant growth pole for the converged development of the two industries in GBA. Cities in the periphery of GBA and the west coast of GBA mostly belong to the “low-low” and “low-high” spatial association types. Finally, sustainable development strategies are put forward from four aspects: spatial layout coordination, industrial division coordination, exchange platform coordination, and regional policy coordination, so as to promote the highly converged and coordinated development of the sports and tourism industries in the urban agglomeration of GBA.

1. Introduction

The Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is an important carrier for China to build a world-class urban agglomeration and participate in global competition. It is an important starting point to promote Hong Kong and Macao to integrate into the overall national development. Its development is closely linked with the development of the whole country. In order to promote the construction of GBA, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the “Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area Development Plan” in 2019, which proposed to continuously deepen the mutually beneficial cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, promote the coordinated development of regional economy, and build GBA into a more dynamic economic area, a high-quality life circle suitable for living, working, and traveling, and a demonstration zone for deep cooperation between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macao to build a first-class Bay area and a world-class urban agglomeration [1]. Among them, the sports and tourism industries are the new engine of the economic development of GBA, the carrier constructed by the leisure Bay area and the humanities Bay area, and the medium of folk cultural exchanges and cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. The converged development of the two is an important direction for the coordinated development of industries in GBA, a booster for regional exchanges and cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, and a vital means for the construction of a high-quality life circle.

The convergence of sports and tourism industries is of great significance for GBA to promote the coordinated development of industries, strengthen regional exchanges and cooperation, create a high-quality living circle, and strengthen the national identity of Hong Kong and Macao. GBA is rich in sports and tourism resources [2], the holding of large-scale sports events such as the Guangzhou Asian Games, the Shenzhen Universiade, and the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Dongguan, as well as the development of theme tourism parks such as Hong Kong Disneyland and Guangzhou Sunac Cultural Tourism City, have provided the opportunities for the convergence of sports and tourism industries in GBA. Increasing the cooperation between the sports industry and the tourism industry in GBA is conducive to the coordinated development of the sports tourism industry. It can not only allow traditional tourism to effectively break through the development boundary, expand the scope of tourism resources, and promote industrial transformation and upgrading, but also allow the sports industry to extend the value chain, promote sports consumption, expand market influence, and enhance its overall economic benefits. In addition, as an emerging way of recreation, sports tourism mainly includes activities such as leisure and entertainment, physical exercise, sports competition, physical rehabilitation and sports, and cultural exchanges. The characteristic sports tourism projects of various cities can form effective interactions and play an active role in promoting regional exchanges and cooperation and non-governmental contacts between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. In the top-level design of the construction of GBA, in order to cooperate with the development of high-tech industries and manufacturing, it is proposed to vigorously develop the service industry in the Bay area [3], and build a leisure Bay area, a healthy Bay area, and a humanities Bay area. The convergence of sports and tourism industries has become an important carrier for the construction of the above three types of Bay areas. In all, the convergence of sports and tourism industries is important and necessary for the high-quality development of GBA.

The convergence of sports tourism industry is the mutual penetration of the sports industry and the tourism industry through the industrial value chain, with sports ontology resources such as sports fitness and leisure projects, sports events and activities, and large sports venues as the core and tourism service elements as the carrier. Through the gradual development of technology integration, business integration, and market integration, a new type of service business with both sports and tourism characteristics has been formed [4]. The study on the convergence of sports and tourism industry in the West started in the 1960s. Anthony elaborated the mutual relationship between sports and tourism, which laid the foundation for the later research. At present, Western studies on the convergence of sports and tourism industry mainly focus on sports event tourism, sports tourist behavior, sports tourism impact, sports heritage tourism, sports tourism sustainable development, and other fields. Gibson pointed out that we should pay attention to the small-scale sports tourism activities with its own particularity and the audience of the game as the core through the investigation of the small-scale tourism of the football fans of the University of Florida [5]. Nancy conducted a survey on sports tourists and explored the impact of sports events on cities through factor analysis, and the results showed that the social, environmental, and economic benefits of cities hosting sports events had been improved to a certain extent [6]. In terms of the economic and social impact of sports tourism, Solberg pointed out hosting major sport events can cause positive shifts in tourism demand on a long-term basis, but the additional revenues might not counterbalance the investment costs that are required of the host destination, and the investments in sports facilities and associated infrastructure for major events must fit into the city’s long-term plan [7]. Daniels discussed the different economic functions of the sports tourism industry in location and argued that although sports tourism can promote the income of the destination, not every region can hold a successful sports event on the premise of the central place theory [8]. Weed M. discussed the role of the interface of sport and tourism in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and pointed out that the interactive activities of sports tourism have made a significant contribution to people’s physical and mental health and the response to the climate crisis during the pandemic [9]. In addition, sports heritage tourism and sustainable development of sports tourism are also key areas of sports tourism industry research in the West [10,11,12,13]. Hinch and Ramshaw illustrated the opportunities and challenges of heritage sport tourism by examining the Arctic Winter Games and the Canadian Football League as heritage sport tourism attractions in Canada [10]. Carneiro and Breda analyzed the sustainable management practices adopted by SMEs providing sports tourism products from five sustainability dimensions of economy, socio-cultural, environmental, policy, and technology [11].

The study on the convergence of Chinese sports industry started in 1992 and flourished in the 21st century. Especially in recent years, with the convergence and innovation of sports industry and related industries, the convergence of sports industry has attracted the attention of Chinese scholars. The research focusing on the convergence of sports and tourism industry mainly presents three aspects: First, the theoretical discussion on the convergence of the two industries has become the cornerstone of sports tourism development. Relevant research covers the connotation [14,15,16], mechanism [4,17], motivation, mode [18,19,20], and effect of the industrial convergences [21,22]. There are three main convergence modes of sports industry and tourist industry: infiltration convergence, reorganization convergence, and extension convergence [15,16,17]. The internal dynamics for the convergence of the two comes from the asset universality of sports resources, while the external dynamics comes from the increasingly advanced tourism consumption structure [4,18]. Second, the practical research on the convergence of the two industries has expanded the new format and new supply for the development of sports tourism. Many practical studies on the convergence of sports tourism industry are ongoing in Sichuan, Shandong, Henan, Guizhou, and other provinces by using the convergence theory of sports and tourist industry [21,22,23,24]; the research focuses on the current situation, convergence mode, convergence products, and countermeasures of the convergence of the two industries. Thirdly, the measurement of the convergence of the two industries provides a scientific judgment for sports tourism development. These studies on the convergence of sports and tourist industry in Chinese are mainly conducted by qualitative methodology, and quantitative studies are less abundant. It mainly draws on the methods of measuring the relationship between industries, such as gray correlation analysis method, input-output method, coupling coordination degree model, etc. [25,26,27,28,29,30]. Zhang used the gray relational method to measure the convergence degree of China’s sports and tourism industries [25]. Wang used the input-output method to measure the degree of convergence of sports and tourism industries in 31 provinces in China [26]. Xu et al. used the coupling coordination degree model to construct an index system for the coupling of sports and tourism industries and explored the synthetic level and spatial distribution of the two industries in various regions [27]. Analyzing the convergence degree and development level of the two from a quantitative perspective can offer scientific support for the sports tourism development. The above achievements are concentrated in recent years, which shows that the measurement of the convergence of sports industry and tourist industry is a new research field.

To sum up, scholars have carried out extensive investigation and study on the convergence of sports and the tourist industry, and gradually built the basic theoretical system of the convergence of the two industries. Western scholars pay more attention to the research on the relationship between sports events and the tourism industry, the economic and social impact of sports tourism, the sustainable development of sports tourism, etc. Chinese scholars mostly focusing on the connotation of integration, integration mechanism, integration model, integration strategy, etc. However, as a whole, the research methods are mostly qualitative and the quantitative analyses are relatively few. The practice area is mainly concentrated in the scope of regions, provinces, and cities, and research on sports tourism convergence at the broader urban agglomeration level is very scarce. A small number of studies on sports tourism in urban agglomerations only focus on the sports tourism resources development of urban agglomerations [31,32,33,34], and there is no empirical analysis on the comparison and coordinated development of urban agglomeration sports and tourism industries. At the same time, the existing research does not involve the spatial impact of the spillover effect or siphon effect between cities in the process of the converged development of the two industries. In view of this, based on the panel data of sports and tourism industries of 11 cities in GBA from 2011 to 2020, this study uses the coupling coordination degree model and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) to measure the convergence development level of sports and tourism industries in urban agglomeration of GBA, and analyze its convergence situation, spatial-temporal evolution, and spatial correlation. On this basis, this paper puts forward strategic suggestions on the coordinated development of the sports tourism industry in urban agglomeration of GBA.

2. Evaluation Model

2.1. Evaluation Premise

When measuring the converged development of sports and tourism industries, scholars mainly draw on the coupling coordination theory derived from physics. In essence, industrial convergence and industrial coupling are two different and related concepts. Industrial convergence refers to a new industrial form through infiltration, crossover, or reorganization in order to adapt to industrial growth, driven by technological innovation, market demand, deregulation, and enterprise cooperation [26]. Industrial coupling refers to the phenomenon that if some links in the production chain of an industry change, it will lead to changes and behavioral responses in other production chains related to the industry. It is generally used to describe the dynamic process of interaction and mutual influence between industrial institutions and market activities [27]. Coupling coordination degree model is often used to analyze the coordination level, and its measurement mainly involves the calculation of coupling degree, coordination index, and coupling coordination degree [35]. Then, the coupling coordination degree of each item is obtained by combining the coupling coordination degree value and coordination level division standard [28]. The sports industry and the tourism industry naturally have twin reciprocity. Through the positive effect of industrial coupling, the industrial value-added and innovation of both sides can be realized. Although industrial coupling is not the same as industrial convergence, industrial coupling can reflect the current degree of convergence to a certain extent through coupling indicators. In this study, the entropy method and coupling coordination degree model were used to establish the convergence evaluation model of sports and tourism industries to evaluate converged development level of the two industries, and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) was used to analyze the spatial correlation of the convergence development of the two industries in urban agglomeration of GBA.

2.2. Methods

2.2.1. Entropy Method

The entropy method determines the weight of indicators according to the variability and utility value of each indicator, which avoids the influence of human factors; it is objective and reproducible, and the weight given has high credibility [36]. This study uses the entropy method to calculate the weight of each evaluating indicator of sports and tourism industries. Here are the steps.

Firstly, dimensionless processing is performed on the variable value. X′_iz represents the value after standardization; X_iz represents the value of the z-th indicator in the i-th year; min(X_iz) is the minimum of the z-th indicator; max(X_iz) represents the maximum of the z-th indicator. To avoid negative value or zero in dimensionless quantization, 0.01 is added after the whole formula [37].

$$X_{i\mathrm{z}}^{\prime }=\frac{X_{i\mathrm{z}}-\min (X_{1\mathrm{z}},X_{2\mathrm{z}},\cdots ,X_{n\mathrm{z}})}{\max (X_{1\mathrm{z}},X_{2\mathrm{z}},\cdots ,X_{n\mathrm{z}})-\min (X_{1\mathrm{z}},X_{2\mathrm{z}},\cdots ,X_{n\mathrm{z}})}+0.01\hspace{0.17em}$$

(1)

Secondly, determine the indicator weights. If n years, r cities, and m evaluation indicators are set, the calculation steps of each indicator weight are as follows. Among them, P_ijz is the proportion of the z-th indicator of the j-th city in the i-th year, E_z is the entropy of the z-th indicator, g_z is the coefficient of difference of the z-th indicator, the larger the g_z is, the more important the indicator is, and W_z is the weight of the z-th indicator.

$$P_{\mathrm{ijz}}=\frac{{X^{\prime }}_{i\mathrm{z}}}{{\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^r}{\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^n{X^{\prime }}_{i\mathrm{z}}}}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}$$

(2)

$$E_{\mathrm{z}}=-\frac{1}{\ln (rn)}{\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^r}{\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^n{P}_{\mathrm{ijz}}\ln P_{\mathrm{ijz}}}\hspace{0.17em}$$

(3)

$$g_{\mathrm{z}}=1-E_{\mathrm{z}}$$

(4)

$$W_{\mathrm{z}}=\frac{g_{\mathrm{z}}}{{\displaystyle \sum _{\mathrm{z}=1}^m{g}_{\mathrm{z}}}}\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em},\mathrm{z}=1,2\cdots m$$

(5)

2.2.2. Coupling Coordination Degree Model

First of all, calculate the sports industry synthetical development level index S_ij and tourism industry synthetical development level index T_ij. The larger the value is, the better the industrial development status will be, and vice versa.

$$T_{ij}={\displaystyle \sum _{Z=1}^p(W_Z}\cdot M_{\mathrm{ijz}})$$

(6)

$$S_{ij}={\displaystyle \sum _{Z=1}^q(W_Z}\cdot N_{\mathrm{ijz}})\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}$$

(7)

In Formulas (6) and (7), W_z is the weight of the evaluating indicator; M_ijz is the dimensionless quantitative value of the z-th indicator of the tourism industry of the j-th city in the i-th year, and N_ijz is the dimensionless quantitative value of the z-th indicator of the sports industry of the j-th city in the i-th year.

Secondly, construct coupling coordination degree model to evaluate the coupling relationship between sports and tourism industries by using the coupling coordination theory in physics. The formula is as follows:

$$O=2{\left[\frac{T_{ij}\cdot S_{ij}}{{(T_{ij}+S_{ij})}^2}\right]}^{\frac{1}{2}}$$

(8)

$$F=\mathsf{\gamma }{T}_{ij}+\mathsf{\epsilon }{S}_{ij}$$

(9)

$$D(T_{ij},S_{ij})=\sqrt{O\cdot F}$$

(10)

Among them, D is the coupling coordination degree, O is the coupling degree, and F is the synthetical coordination indicator of the sports and the tourism industries, reflecting the influence of the synthetical development level of the two industries on coordination degree. γ and δ are undetermined coefficients. Referring to the research of relevant scholars [26,27,28,29], it is believed that the sports industry and tourism industry are equally important to a city’s economy, so both γ and δ are set as the coefficient values of 0.5. According to the coupling coordination degree model, the value range of D is [0, 1]. To compare the convergence development level of the sports and the tourism industries, referring to Weng (2016) [38], Xu (2020) [27], and other scholars’ division methods, D is divided into 10 grades (

Table 1. Division standard of coupling coordination degree.

D	Coordination Grades	Stage Division
0.0000–0.0999	extreme incongruity	Maladjustment stage
0.1000–0.1999	serious incongruity
0.2000–0.2999	moderate incongruity
0.3000–0.3999	mild incongruity
0.4000–0.4999	verging incongruity	Transition stage
0.5000–0.5999	basic coordination
0.6000–0.6999	primary coordination	Coordination stage
0.7000–0.7999	intermediate coordination
0.8000–0.8999	well coordination
0.9000–1.0000	wonderful coordination

).

2.2.3. Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis Model

In order to explain the spatial correlation of the coupling coordination level of the converged development of sports and tourism industry in various regions, ESDA is used to accurately obtain the spatial correlation of the convergence situation in each region, which provided reference for inter-regional cooperation and overall management. The test indexes commonly used in ESDA including Global Moran’s I and Local Moran’s I. The Global Moran’s I is mainly used to measure the spatial correlation pattern of the whole area within a certain spatial range. The Local Moran’s I is mainly used to measure the type and degree of spatial association between each spatial unit and its surrounding units within a certain spatial range [38,39]. It is expressed as follows:

$$I=\frac{{\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^n{\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_{ij}(x_i-\overline{x})(x_j-\overline{x})}}}{S^2{\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^{\mathrm{n}}{\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_{ij}}}}$$

(11)

$$I_i=\frac{(x_i-\overline{x}){\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_{ij}(x_j-\overline{x})}}{S^2}$$

(12)

In Formulas (11) and (12), I refers to Global Moran’s I, I_i refers to Local Moran’s I, n refers to the number of cities within the research space, x_i and x_j are respectively the coupling coordination of the converged development of the two industries in each city, $\overline{x}$ is the mean value of the coupling coordination in each city, w_ij is the spatial weight, and S² is the variance of the coupling coordination degree in each city [39].

The Global Moran’s I ranges from [−1, 1], I > 0, indicating a positive correlation, the larger the value, the more significant the spatial agglomeration characteristics of convergence of the sports and tourism industries; I < 0, indicating a negative correlation, the smaller the value, the more significant the spatial difference in convergence of the sports and tourism industries; I = 0, there is no correlation. The Local Moran’s I can make up for the overly general shortcomings of the Global Moran’s I. It can reflect the local spatial agglomeration degree of each city through four spatial correlation types: high-high, low-low, low-high, and high-low, and can use the LISA significance test to reflect its significance degree.

2.3. Evaluating Indicator System

Indicator selection is the key to evaluate the industrial development level. In terms of sports industry evaluation, Chen et al. measured the development level of the regional sports industry by selecting five indicators, including added value of the sports industry, number of sports clubs, number of gymnasiums, number of employees in the sports system, and number of national fitness activities [40]. Yang et al. constructed sports industry evaluation indicators from two aspects of industrial performance and industrial factors [41]. Xu et al. established an indicator system from two dimensions of industrial economy and market scale, and selected the operating income of corporate legal entities in the culture, sports, and entertainment industries, main business income of sports and entertainment products manufacturing industry, sports lottery sales, number of sports venues, number of marathon events, number of cultural, sports and entertainment legal entities, and the employment of culture, sports, and entertainment are seven indicators to evaluate the development level of sports industry. In terms of tourism industry evaluation, Weng et al. constructed evaluating indicators for the synthetical development level of tourism from five aspects: the total amount, the number of institutions, employees, business conditions, and tourism resources [38]. Tian built a tourism evaluation index system from three dimensions: tourism industry revenue, tourism enterprise revenue, and tourism practitioners [29]. As can be seen from the above research results, the indicators to measure the development level of sports and tourism industries are numerous and complex, and different indicator systems can be constructed from different research dimensions. However, in general, corresponding indicator systems can be constructed from the perspectives of input and output to evaluate the industrial development level based on the factor level and performance level of the industry. Drawing on previous research results, based on the representativeness, availability, and inter-regional comparability of data and other index selection principles, this paper constructs the evaluating indicator system for the convergence development of sports and tourism industries (

Table 2. Evaluating indicator system of convergence development of sports and tourism industries.

Industry Types	First Level Indexes	Second Level Indexes	Indexes Weight
Sports Industry	Industrial factor level	Fixed-asset investment in culture, sports, and entertainment industry (100 million yuan)	0.1501
		Number of sports venues (PCS)	0.0787
		Number of enterprises above designated size in the cultural, sports, and entertainment industries (PCS)	0.1691
		Employment in culture, sports, and entertainment (persons)	0.1237
	Industrial performance level	Revenue from sports entertainment and sports manufacturing above designated size (100 million yuan)	0.1731
		Number of individual events (times)	0.2116
		Number of holding national fitness activities (times)	0.0938
Tourism Industry	Industrial factor level	Number of A-level tourist attractions (PCS)	0.1033
		Number of star-rated hotels (PCS)	0.1525
		Number of travel agencies (PCS)	0.2536
		Fixed-asset investment in accommodation and catering industry (100 million yuan)	0.1002
		Number of tourism employees (persons)	0.1303
	Industrial performance level	Tourism revenue (100 million yuan)	0.1722
		Number of tourists (ten thousand)	0.0879

).

3. Data Collection

3.1. Study Area

This paper takes 11 cities in urban agglomeration of GBA as the research objects, including two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao and nine cities in the Pearl River Delta, namely, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhaoqing, and Jiangmen, which are the frontier areas for China to build a powerful modern socialist country and demonstrate the vigorous vitality of the market economy. Its sports and tourism industry has always been at the leading level in China throughout the year. At present, GBA has formed a regional sports tourism integrated development system with rich resources and profound background, represented by high-end sports event tourism, marine sports tourism, golf sports leisure, lion dance, martial arts, Lingnan culture, sports tourism, etc. Although the convergence of the sports tourism industry in GBA has a good foundation for development and has a lot of achievements, there are still some problems, such as a big gap of the sports tourism development within the urban agglomeration, the single form of sports tourism exchange and cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, and the lack of an effective division of cooperation mechanism in the sports tourism industry. By analyzing the convergence level and spatio-temporal evolution and exploring the convergence situation of sports tourism industry in urban agglomeration of GBA, it can provide a scientific basis for cities in GBA to define the direction of coordinated development of sports tourism and promote deep cooperation in sports tourism between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao.

3.2. Data Sources

The relevant data of evaluating indicators are mainly from the statistical yearbook and statistical bulletin of Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics and statistics of various cities in GBA from 2012 to 2021. The data not disclosed in the statistical yearbook can be obtained by contacting the public information platform of each city based on application, government affairs, and public opinions.

4. Results

4.1. Synthetical Development Level of Sports and Tourism Industries

Based on the indicators data of the sports industry and tourism industry of 11 cities in GBA from 2011 to 2020, using the weight calculation formula in the entropy method, the weight of each indicator in the evaluating indicator system is obtained, as shown in Table 1. According to the calculation formula of synthetical development level of sports and tourism industries constructed above, the synthetical development level of two industries of 11 cities in GBA from 2011 to 2020 is obtained (Figure 1). To explore the regional differences in the convergence of the two industries, the urban agglomeration of GBA is further divided into three major areas: the east coast of GBA, the north coast of GBA, and the west coast of GBA. Among them, cities on the east coast of GBA include Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Huizhou, cities on the west coast of GBA include Macao, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, and Jiangmen, and cities on the north coast of GBA include Guangzhou, Foshan, and Zhaoqing [42].

As can be seen from Figure 1, the synthetical development level of the two industries in GBA showed a trend of steady increase except for the general decline in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19. The average index of the synthetical development level of the sports industry increased from 0.1742 in 2011 to 0.2608 in 2019. The average index of synthetical development level of tourism industry increased from 0.1916 in 2011 to 0.2729 in 2019. However, the development level of sports and tourism industries in different regions is obviously different, and the synthetical development level shows the east coast of GBA > the north coast of GBA > the west coast of GBA. In the three major regions, the cities with a higher synthetical development level of the sports industry are mainly Hong Kong and Shenzhen on the east coast of GBA, Guangzhou on the north coast of GBA, and Macao on the west coast of GBA, while the cities with a lower synthetical development level of the sports industry are mainly Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Zhuhai on the west coast of GBA and Zhaoqing on the north coast of GBA. The cities with a higher synthetical development level of the tourism industry are mainly Hong Kong and Shenzhen on the east coast of GBA and Guangzhou on the north coast of GBA. The cities with the lowest synthetical development level of the tourism industry are mainly Zhaoqing located in the inland of the north coast of GBA and Zhongshan on the west coast of GBA.

From the development gap between sports industry and tourism industry, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, and other cities take the tourism industry as the pillar industry or core industry, and the synthetical development level of tourism industry is higher than sports industry. In Dongguan and Foshan, which have a strong sports manufacturing base, the synthetical development level of sports industry is higher than that of tourism industry. In Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Macao, there are many large-scale international sports events, and the industrial transformation and upgrading of tourism is accelerating. Both the sports industry and the tourism industry have a relatively high development degree, and the two industries develop simultaneously. Of course, Zhaoqing, Zhongshan, and other cities have seen the phenomenon that the sports industry and tourism industry are lagging behind at the same time, and the two have begun to interact with each other. The industrial development gap between cities is obvious. In the future, attention should be paid to improving the collaborative development ability between regions and industries of the urban agglomeration in GBA, so as to jointly serve the overall construction of the Leisure Bay Area and the Humanities Bay Area.

4.2. Convergence Development Trend of Sports and Tourism Industries

According to the coupling coordination degree model, the convergence degree of two industries in 11 cities of GBA from 2011 to 2020 is shown in Figure 2. From the perspective of the development trend of the convergence of sports and the tourism industries, except for the decline in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall industrial convergence of urban agglomeration in GBA has shown an increasing trend. The spatial-temporal evolution of convergence development shows a gradual decrease in the layers from the inner to the outer circle with Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Macao as the core.

The convergence degree and ranking of sports and tourism industries in 11 cities in GBA in 2019 are shown in

Table 3. Convergence degree and ranking of sports and tourism industry in the urban agglomeration in 2019.

	Convergence Degree	Ranking
Hong Kong	0.8062	1
Guangzhou	0.7518	2
Shenzhen	0.6721	3
Macao	0.5497	4
Dongguan	0.4574	5
Foshan	0.4484	6
Huizhou	0.3899	7
Zhuhai	0.3545	8
Jiangmen	0.3531	9
Zhongshan	0.2838	10
Zhaoqing	0.2805	11

. The average degree of convergence between sports and tourism industries in the 11 cities in GBA is 0.4454, the standard deviation is 0.1742, and the maximum value is 0.8062 in Hong Kong, and the minimum value is 0.2805 in Zhaoqing, and the range is 0.5257. It can be seen that the overall convergence degree of the two industries in urban agglomeration of GBA is not high. Nearly half of the urban industry convergence is still in the initial stage. The main forms and products of convergence include sports tourism, event tourism, competition performances, etc. The current development scale and input-output are relatively limited, and the standard deviation and range of industrial convergence between cities are large, indicating that the industrial convergence within the urban agglomeration of GBA has large differences and uneven development.

Combining with Figure 3, it can be seen that the overall situation of the convergence of sports and tourism industries in GBA shows a trend of gradual increase from west to east. Cities with high level of industrial convergence are mainly distributed around the Pearl River Estuary, the top six cities including Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Macao, Dongguan, and Foshan. These regions are rich in cultural tourism resources and have many international or national sports, brand event resources, complete sports and tourism service facilities, high level of people’s consumption, superior location, and high degree of openness, which are conducive to the joint development of sports and tourism industries, so the industrial convergence degree is high. On the other hand, the converged development level of the two industries in the west coast cities of GBA is generally low. Three of the bottom five cities belong to the west coast region, including Zhuhai, Jiangmen, and Zhongshan, and the other two are Huizhou and Zhaoqing, which is located in the mountainous area of GBA. The above cities are rich in leisure and sports tourism resources and have a good foundation for development, but they did not pay enough attention to the sports industry, insufficient supply of sports services, and low level of sports facilities operation. The total scale of the sports industry is small, the aggregation effect is poor, and the resource advantages such as tourism have not been effectively converged with the sports industry.

4.3. Convergence Degree between Sports and Tourism Industries

The sports and tourism industries of Hong Kong and Guangzhou are relatively developed, and the degree of convergence of the two industries also ranks among the top of GBA, achieving good coordination and intermediate coordination, far superior to other cities. As the core cities of GBA, Shenzhen and Macao aim to build an internationally famous sports city and a world tourism and leisure center, and the two places are in primary coordination or basic coordination. Dongguan and Foshan are world-renowned for their sports manufacturing industries, and the sports industry is booming. In particular, Foshan enjoys the reputation of “World Kung Fu City”, but the supply level of sports tourism products is low, and the major sports tourism leading projects and key projects are lacking. The convergence of sports and tourism industries is in a transitional stage, and the convergence degree is on the verging incongruity. Other cities in the west coast and mountainous areas of GBA have great potential for sports tourism, but their development is not yet mature at the present stage, and their sports tourism facilities are not yet perfect. Except Zhaoqing and Zhongshan, which have been in moderate incongruity, Huizhou, Zhuhai, and Jiangmen have been in mild incongruity in recent years. From the perspective of vertical spatio-temporal evolution, the convergence degree level of sports and tourism industries in urban agglomeration of GBA has evolved from the moderate and mild incongruity level in 2011 to the verging incongruity and basic coordination level in 2015 and 2019, and the convergence degree of sports and tourism industries has been constantly improving, showing a trend of positive development.

4.4. Spatial Correlation Analysis of the Convergence Development of Sports and Tourism Industries

From the perspective of spatial-temporal evolution of the converged development level of two industries in the urban agglomeration of GBA, there are agglomeration phenomena to a certain extent around the Pearl River Estuary and the west coast of GBA. The high-value agglomeration and low-value agglomeration within the urban agglomeration reflects the obvious spatial correlation of the converged development of the sports tourism industry in GBA. In order to accurately analyze this spatial relationship, the Global Moran’s I and the Local Moran’s I were used for verification. In this paper, the coupling coordination degree of the convergence development of two industries in the urban agglomeration of GBA from 2011 to 2020 was taken as the observation index, and GeoDa and ArcGIS software were used to conduct spatial correlation analysis.

4.4.1. Global Moran’s I Test

From 2011 to 2020, the values of Global Moran’s I for the convergence of sports and tourism industries in the urban agglomeration of GBA were all positive (

Table 4. Convergence Global Moran’s I from 2011 to 2020.

Years	2011	2013	2015	2017	2019	2020
Global Moran’s I	0.143	0.162	0.188	0.230	0.326	0.267

), indicating that the overall convergence development level of the two industries is a positive spatial correlation, that is, it shows the distribution characteristics of spatial aggregation. At the same time, except for a significant decline due to the epidemic in 2020, the aggregation degree has been on the rise as a whole, indicating that the convergence of sports and tourism industries in GBA has shown a good development trend.

4.4.2. Local Moran’s I Test

Through the Local Moran’s I test, it can be seen that the “low-high” mode has the most cities, with a total of five cities. The second is the “high-high” mode, mainly three cities around the Pearl River Estuary, while the “low-low” model and the “high-low” mode are relatively few, mainly cities on the west coast of GBA. Figure 4 shows the spatial correlation types, LISA significance map, and aggregation map of cities in GBA in 2019.

It can be seen from Figure 4a that the “high-high” type includes Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. These cities have a relatively high degree of convergence of sports and tourism industries and belong to high-value agglomeration areas. These cities are adjacent to each other around the Pearl River Estuary, forming an interconnected and mutually reinforcing hole in space, producing obvious spillover effects and becoming a vital growth pole for the converged development of the two industries in GBA. All three cities passed the LISA significance test with a significance level of 0.05 (Figure 4b,c), indicating that these three cities have the high convergence degree and can promote the coordinated development of surrounding cities.

The “low-high” type includes five cities, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, and Foshan. Except for Foshan, the other four cities passed the LISA significance test. These cities are all adjacent to the “high-high” type of cities. Although the surrounding cities have a high convergence degree of the sports and tourism industries, their own convergence development started late, coupled with the lack of motivation for the convergence of sports and tourism industries and lack of innovation and open environment, which have resulted in an insignificant driving effect of positive radiation from regions with a high convergence degree, and even resulted in the flow of talents and capital to surrounding cities with a high convergence degree. These cities should make the most of their comparative advantages and actively strive for cooperation with surrounding cities with high degree of convergence in terms of capital, talents, technology, and new forms of sports tourism, so as to improve the convergence development level of the two industries.

The “high-low” type only includes one city, Macao, which failed LISA significance test. Macao is surrounded by cities with a low degree of convergence. Although the convergence level of its own is not low, due to the low level of convergence development of surrounding cities, its own urban area is lesser, and the cross-border institutional and institutional obstacles formed objectively under the background of “one country, two systems”, making the spillover effect not obvious, and it cannot effectively promote the common development and mutual promotion of the surrounding “low-high” and “low-low” types of cities, and there is no high-value agglomeration area like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong.

The “low-low” type mainly includes Zhaoqing and Jiangmen, which are distributed in the periphery of GBA, and all of them failed the LISA significance test. Restricted by geographical location, economic development level, and other factors, the two cities are surrounded by cities with low convergence degree, which makes the convergence development level significantly lower than other cities in GBA but it has not significantly inhibited the development of surrounding cities. In the future, with the strong support of the government, regional restrictions should be broken, resources should be complementary, and cross-regional cooperation should be achieved, so as to enhance the convergence development level of the two industries in “low-low” regions.

5. Discussion and Development Strategy

The convergence of sports and tourism industries is an inevitable trend of socio-economic development in the new era. It is also an important direction for the coordinated industrial development and an important means for creating a high-quality living circle that is livable and business- and travelling-friendly in the urban agglomeration of GBA. Through the research, it was found that the overall situation of the convergence of sports and tourism industries in urban agglomeration of GBA shows an increasing trend from west to east. The level of industrial convergence within the urban agglomeration is significantly different. The cities around the Pearl River Estuary have a high degree of coupling development, while the cites on the west coast and in the mountain areas of GBA have a low degree of coupling development. When Xu [27] and Wang [16] studied the convergence of sports and tourism industries in China, they also concluded that the coupling coordination degree of sports and tourism industries in China showed a spatial feature of ladder distribution in the east, the center, and the west, the coupling coordination degree in the eastern coastal area is better than that in the central and western mountainous areas. Xu also obtained similar research results in the research on the convergence development of sports and tourism industries in Shandong Province, Qingdao, Yantai, and other eastern coastal areas and areas with convenient transportation have a higher convergence degree of sports and tourism industries, while Liaocheng, Heze, and other western mountainous cities have a lower convergence degree of sports and tourism industries [22]. It can be seen that the convergence trend of sports and tourism industries is similar to a certain extent at the urban agglomeration level, province level, or country level. Geographical location, transportation convenience, and economic development level have an important impact on the convergence of regional sports tourism industry. It is worth noting that this view is supported by Daniels et al. Based on the central place theory, Daniels believes that the economic role of the sports tourism industry will have significant differences due to different location characteristics, and it is necessary to strengthen the sports tourism collaboration between regions, build a cooperative brand, and promote the coordinated development of regional economy [8].

The analysis also shows that the cities with many large-scale international sports events have fast transformation and upgrading of tourism industry, high development degree of sports industry and tourism industry, and high level of coupling coordination degree of sports tourism industry. Cities that have not yet formed international sports brand events that can be continuously held and operated have a low level of sports facilities operation, poor aggregation effect, are unable to effectively integrate the advantages of tourism resources with sports industry, and have a low level of coupling coordination of the sports tourism industry. The results of this study are similar to those of Solberg and Nancy et al. Solberg believes that hosting major sports events can bring about a positive change in urban tourism demand on a long-term basis, and the complete infrastructure and sports facilities provide a prerequisite for hosting more events, attracting more tourists and promoting the integrated development of urban sports tourism [7]. Nancy found that the social, environmental, and economic benefits of the host cities were improved to some extent [6]. The results of this study and the above studies all reflect that the continuous holding of large-scale sports events can indeed promote the converged development of regional sports tourism industry.

Since the GBA was proposed, academic circles have paid close attention to it. In recent years, scholars have begun to discuss the coordinated development of industries in GBA from the perspective of sports [43,44,45,46,47,48]. Xiao found that the uneven development of the sports industry in the cities of GBA hinders the coordinated development of the sports industry in GBA [48]. Zhou believes that the coordinated development of sports industry needs to combine the comparative advantages of Bay Area cities and make use of the division of labor and cluster of regional sports industry [43]. Zhu proposed that the convergence development of sports events in GBA will help avoid competition for the interests of sports events among cities in GBA, and fully release the synthetical effect of the convergence of sports events [44]. The above scholars have recognized the uneven development of the sports industry and the importance of coordinated development in urban agglomeration of GBA. Compared with existing studies, this study adopts quantitative analysis methods such as coupling coordination model and ESDA to not only reveal the unbalanced development of sports tourism industry in urban agglomeration of GBA, but also measure the degree and trend of unbalanced development. The results show that the convergence degree of sports tourism industry in GBA has an obvious growth trend, the cities around the Pearl River Estuary have a high degree of coupled development and obvious spatial agglomeration effect, which has a certain spillover effect to the surrounding areas where the integration of the two industries is not well developed. However, the coupling development degree of cities in the periphery and west coast of GBA is low. Although there is siphon effect, the impact is constantly weakening. Through the quantitative analysis of industrial integration, the research results are more reliable and valid, which provides a scientific basis for the formulation of collaborative development policies of sports industry in urban agglomeration of GBA, and makes up for the subjectivity and one-side defects of previous qualitative studies.

Overall, the level of convergence between the sports and tourism industries in urban agglomeration of GBA is not high, the convergence development of sports tourism within urban agglomeration is unbalanced, and the regional differences are significant. The ability of industrial coordination development needs to be improved urgently. Therefore, this paper puts forward the following four strategic suggestions to promote the coordinated development of the two industries in urban agglomeration of GBA.

Firstly, coordinate spatial layout to promote the balanced development of sports tourism industry. Play to ring the core area of Pearl River Estuary of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macao in the growth pole in the development of sports and tourism industries, and make full use of the policy dividends and opportunities, such as Shenzhen Pilot Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, the Northern Metropolitan area of Hong Kong, the Hengqin Guangdong–Macao Deep Cooperation Zone, and the Construction of GBA, improve the quality and service level of sports tourism facilities, actively introduce world-class sports events, and attract internationally renowned sports organizations and enterprises to set up their headquarters in the core area of GBA. Empower the sports tourism industry, lead the modern, intelligent, and green development of sports tourism industry, and create a demonstration highland for the converged development of sports tourism in GBA. For the west coast and the mountainous cities in GBA with low industrial development level, we should strengthen the investment and construction of sports tourism infrastructure, focus on introducing leading enterprises and key projects of sports tourism, give full play to the advantages of natural and cultural resources such as mountain, ocean, and sports folk culture, and actively develop characteristic outdoor sports and sports tourism. Vigorously support the cities of the west bank, north bank, and east bank of GBA in applying for and hosting major domestic and foreign sports events with market benefits and influence in combination with their regional characteristics, so as to drive the transformation and upgrading of urban infrastructure and sports facilities and accelerate the socio-economic development of the city. At the same time, promote urban agglomeration of GBA to form a converged development pattern of sports tourism resource sharing, mutual benefit and win-win, jointly hold high-end sports brand events, and jointly carry out sports tourism publicity and promotion, to create a sports tourism brand with extensive influence in GBA.

Secondly, collaborate industrial division to expand the supply of quality sports tourism products. Give full play to the respective advantages of the cities in GBA, promote the division and collaboration of the sports tourism industry within the urban agglomeration, create a system of sports tourism products with different characteristics, and realize the differentiated development of sports tourism in urban agglomeration of the GBA. Strengthen the converged development of competition performances, fitness and leisure, sports and health care, sports industry clusters, and sports characteristic towns with the tourism industry, develop fashionable leisure sports items and characteristic sports tourism routes, and optimize the supply of sports tourism market. Support Zhuhai and Shenzhen to build a coastal sports and leisure product system, support Huizhou and Zhaoqing to develop a mountain outdoor sports and leisure product system and a health-care sports tourism product system, encourage Jiangmen and Macao to develop a cultural heritage sports tourism product system, and guide Foshan, Zhongshan, and Dongguan to build a folklore product system. Create a sports tourism product system and emerging sports tourism product system, support the development of high-end sports event tourism product system in Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, coordinate the launch of the “one-trip multi-destination” sports tourism boutique route in urban agglomeration of GBA, and jointly organize sports tourism activities, to jointly expand the source market of tourists, and create a high-quality living circle and a world-class tourist destination that is livable, business-friendly, and travel-friendly.

Thirdly, coordinate communication platform to build sports tourism industry cooperation bridge. Through inter-departmental cooperation, it will lead the industry to build a fixed liaison and docking platform and smooth the communication and coordination mechanism between sports and tourism industries. Build a sports tourism information sharing and co-construction platform to realize sports tourism data sharing, business collaboration, and management interoperability in urban agglomeration of GBA. Build a sports tourism industry service platform, cultivate various forms of sports tourism industry associations and intermediary organizations, and guide industry associations to play the role of market players in the aspects of industry management, standard formulation, industrial collaboration, and cross-industry convergence in GBA. Establish a sports tourism investment and financing platform in GBA, build a sports tourism industry fund through the participation of the government, enterprises, and financial institutions, and increase investment in cross-regional projects, new business projects, and sports tourism infrastructure projects in GBA. Establish a joint promotion platform for sports tourism in GBA, jointly create sports brand activities themed on the “Belt and Road” and the GBA, jointly participate in important sports tourism exhibitions in China and abroad and strengthen the promotion of sports tourism in GBA.

Fourthly, coordinate regional policy to build the cross-regional sports tourism industry cooperation mechanism. Compared to other bay areas or urban agglomerations around the world, the urban agglomeration of GBA has the unique characteristics of “one country, two systems, three jurisdictions and customs areas, three currencies, and four central cities” [46], which leads to the development of sports tourism industry faces the problems of system differences and mechanisms coordination. It is urgent to realize the deep convergence and coordinated the sports tourism industry development in urban agglomeration of GBA by building and improving the cross-regional sports tourism industry cooperation mechanism. The basic idea of regional policy coordination is to form a cross-regional and cross-industry “joint force for the development of the sports tourism industry”, strengthen “hard connection” and “soft connection”, not only to realize the connection of sports tourism hardware facilities in GBA, but also to build an integrated coordination mechanism and cross-regional sports tourism cooperation mechanism of cost sharing and benefit sharing [47]. Through the two-pronged approach, integrating resources, unifying standards, and innovating models, further eliminate cross-border and cross-border institutional and institutional obstacles, and promote the free circulation of various elements such as funds, talents, and technology, and ultimately realize the division and collaboration, effective linkage, complementary advantages, and coordinated development of the two industries in the urban agglomeration of GBA.

Taking the sports industry in GBA as the carrier, this study explores the synergistic development of sports and tourism industries from the level of urban agglomeration, which is helpful to enrich the theory and practice system of tourism. Through the evaluation and spatial correlation analysis of the convergence degree between the sports industry and the tourism industry in GBA, it reveals the convergence trend, temporal and spatial evolution law, and spatial agglomeration characteristics of the sports and tourism industries, which can provide a scientific decision-making basis for promoting the coordinated development of the sports tourism industry, deepening the regional cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, and improving people’s happiness in the urban agglomeration of GBA. It should be pointed out that this study still has certain limitations. As relatively independent economies, Hong Kong and Macao have different statistical standards from the Pearl River Delta cities. Using the same evaluating indicator system for measurement will ignore the uniqueness of Hong Kong and Macao. Therefore, in the upcoming research, we can further improve the evaluating indicator system of sports and tourism industries and design a more accurate evaluation model. In addition, this paper focuses on analyzing the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of the convergence development level of the two industries in urban agglomeration of GBA. However, there is a lack of research on the driving mechanism, influencing factors, and the evolution mechanism of the spatial-temporal pattern of the development of two industries, which is also a direction for further research in the future.

6. Conclusions

In this paper, the coupling coordination degree theory and ESDA method were used to evaluate the convergence development level, spatial-temporal evolution, and spatial correlation of sports and tourism industries in urban agglomeration of GBA from 2011 to 2020. The major conclusions are as follows:

The synthetical development level of the two industries in urban agglomerations of GBA from 2011 to 2020 showed a steady increase except for the significant decline in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19. The development level of different regions in GBA is significantly different. The synthetical development level of the sports and tourism industries shows the spatial differentiation characteristics of the east coast of GBA > the north coast of GBA > the west coast of GBA. In the future, attention should be paid to improve the coordinated development capacity of the urban agglomeration of GBA, strengthening the deep convergence of sports and tourism industries, and jointly serving the overall construction of the Leisure Bay Area and Cultural Bay Area.

From 2011 to 2020, the convergence of sports and tourism industries in GBA had an obvious growth trend, but the overall convergence and coordination level was not high, basically in the late stage of incongruity and transition stage, and there is still considerable distance from the overall coordination development. The overall situation of the convergence of sports and tourism industries in the urban agglomeration of GBA shows an increasing trend from west to east. The level of industrial convergence within the urban agglomeration varies greatly and the development is uneven. Cities with a high level of industrial convergence are mainly distributed around the Pearl River Estuary, and cities with a low level of industrial convergence are mainly distributed in the west coast and mountainous areas of the GBA, and the urban development gap in different regions is widening. The reason is that there are not only constraints such as geographical location, historical development, economic level, and industrial factor input, but also constraints on the concept of industrial development.

The converged development trend of sports and tourism industries in urban agglomeration of GBA is generally improving. Except for 2020, the overall degree of aggregation is on the rise, showing a positive clustering distribution in space. Most of the cities around the Pearl River Estuary belong to the “high-high” spatial correlation type, and all of them passed the significance test, with obvious spillover effects, becoming a vital growth pole for the converged development of the two industries in GBA. Most of the cities in the periphery of GBA and the west coast belong to the “low-low” and “low-high” spatial correlation types. In the future, with strong support of the government, regional restrictions should be broken and continuous investment and efforts should be made in regional coordinated development and synthetical development of sports tourism resources.

According to the development trend and problems of the convergence of sports and tourism industries in GBA, strategic suggestions are put forward from four aspects: spatial layout coordination, industrial division coordination, exchange platform coordination, and regional policy coordination. In view of the large differences in the convergence level and uneven development of sports tourism industry within the urban agglomeration of GBA, the spatial layout coordination strategy of the core area around the Pearl River Estuary, the west coast of GBA, and the north coast of GBA is proposed in order to promote the urban agglomeration of GBA to form a convergence development pattern of sports tourism resource sharing and mutual benefit, and build the sports tourism brand of GBA with wide influence. In view of the problem of unclear and homogenized development of the sports tourism industry in urban agglomeration of GBA, it is proposed to give full play to the advantages of each city in GBA, promote the industrial division coordination of sports tourism industry within the urban agglomeration, build a distinctive sports tourism product system, and realize the differentiated development of sports tourism in urban agglomeration of GBA. Aiming at the problem of the impeded flow of sports industry and tourism industry elements in urban agglomeration of GBA, it is proposed to construct five kinds of sports tourism industry communication platforms and build the sports tourism industry cooperation bridge, including sports tourism industry liaison and docking platform, sports tourism information sharing and co-construction platform, sports tourism industry service platform, sports tourism investment and financing platform, and sports tourism joint promotion platform. In view of the institutional differences and institutional coordination problems caused by the cross-border of the development of sports tourism industry in urban agglomeration of GBA, it is proposed to establish an integrated overall coordination mechanism and a cross-regional sports tourism industry cooperation mechanism with cost sharing and benefit sharing to promote the free flow of various elements such as capital, talent, and technology.