Abstract:
The integrated sports development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has yielded a series of substantive breakthroughs. As one of the four core cities of the Greater Bay Area, Macao, drawing on the practical strengths of the “one country, two systems” framework, its strategic positioning as a “World Centre of Tourism and Leisure”, and its profound heritage of Sino-Western cultural integration, shoulders a distinctive mission in the Greater Bay Area’s sports-integration process. This paper systematically sorts out Macao’s historical heritage of integrating into regional sports across four dimensions: mass sport, competitive sport, school-based sport, and the co-existence and mutual enrichment of sports cultures. It conducts an in-depth analysis of Macao’s pivotal roles in key practices: the development of event-led economy as an accelerator for Greater Bay Area development, the presentation of international competitions as an outward-facing window, institutional innovation as a major driver of collaborative development, and spiritual-motivation practice as a platform for patriotism-themed education. This paper further outlines Macao’s functional positioning in the future sports-integration agenda of the Greater Bay Area and proposes targeted pathways and strategies concerning deeper institutional coordination, strengthened industrial integration, full leveraging of platform advantages, and consolidated talent foundations. The study argues that Macao should seize the opportunity of building a sports bay area, strive to deliver the objectives set out in the Agreement on Strengthening Sports Cooperation and Promoting Integrated Development, translate the legacy of the 15th National Games into sustained drivers for urban development, deepen collaborative partnerships with Guangdong and Hong Kong, advance the in-depth integration of sport with culture, tourism and other industries, and contribute Macao-specific strengths toward building a world-class Greater Bay Area.