A112: Analysis of Attention Allocation in Fitness and Leisure Industry Policies of Local Governments

Abstract

In 2016, China issued the Guidance on Accelerating the Development of the Fitness and Leisure Industry, after which local governments successively promulgated related policies. As key actors in policy implementation, the rationality of attention allocation in their policies directly impacts policy outcomes. Based on attention allocation theory, this study explores provincial government promotion plans for the fitness and leisure industry from multiple dimensions, analyzing differences in attention allocation among provincial governments, with the aim of providing references for advancing high-quality development of the industry. Policy texts from 29 provincial-level regions were collected through official government portals. Using NVivo 11 software, the texts were processed and analyzed. Two coders familiar with policy analysis conducted the coding, and one randomly selected policy text was subjected to consistency verification. Two main functions of the software were applied: first, the word frequency query function to broadly grasp policy content; second, the coding function to establish an analytical framework. Through sentence-by-sentence coding of the 29 policy texts, 9 parent nodes and 46 child nodes were established, totaling 1,001 reference nodes. The top three-word frequencies were sports, development, and exercise. Over time, local governments’ attention to the fitness and leisure industry shifted from an initial concentrated focus to a gradual decline, reflecting waning interest in nationally set policy objectives. In terms of policy formats, local policies were largely similar. Reference node values revealed that local governments allocated more attention to improving service systems, strengthening organizational guarantees, and enhancing infrastructure construction, while less attention was directed toward advancing R&D and manufacturing of equipment or optimizing industrial structures and layouts. Conclusions/Discussion: The development of the fitness and leisure industry is an inevitable trend driven by China’s socioeconomic progress. Local governments should rationally allocate attention based on regional characteristics to address shortcomings in policy formulation and implementation, ensuring policies effectively propel industry growth. While this study’s use of NVivo coding may be subject to coder bias, it interprets the content framework of fitness and leisure industry policies through the lens of attention allocation, enriching academic understanding of policy implications and contributing to industry advancement