Observations, trends and challenges of China’s ice and snow industry
Visitors experience ice and snow culture at Snow Village in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang Province. Photo: HEILONGJIANG DAILY
Chongli District in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, will be one of the host cities of the 2022 Winter Olympics. In the district, Miyuan Eco-tourism Holiday Resort is a destination for outdoor activities during the day. As twilight falls, tourists, after skiing and other outdoor activities, come to enjoy a wide range of entertainment, such as star-reated hotels, ski equipment stores, beauty and nail salons, art galleries and stores where they can buy candies, toys, jewelry and watches.
Golden age
Data shows that during the 2018–2019 snow season, Chongli District received more than 1 million tourists for the first time, a year-on-year increase of 25.9%. A total of 2.8 million tourists visited Chongli during the snow season.
Beyond Chongli, the ice and snow industry has been flourishing across the country. A few days ago, a light and shadow show premiered in the Winter Olympics Plaza in the Shougang Area situated in western Beijing. The show depicts Shougang’s 100-year industrial history and stories themed on the Winter Olympics. With the opportunities to be brought by the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, the Shougang Area has begun hosting competitions in the sports of the Winter Olympics, becoming a new Beijing landmark.
According to the latest data released by WSTOPS Ice and Snow Think Tank, the number of domestic ski trips in the 2018–2019 season reached 23.5 million, an increase of 21.5% compared with 19.3 million in the 2017–2018 season.
Take Beijing as an example. In the 2018–2019 season, admissions to outdoor winter sports resorts hit 5 million, an increase of 15% over the 2017–2018 season. If other forms of ski resorts and indoor simulated ski resorts are included, Beijing’s skiing admissions have exceeded 2 million.
Winter sports are booming because of preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics and the country’s vigorous advocacy, creating immense opportunities for the development of China’s ice and snow industry. On Sep. 17, 2019, the General Office of the State Council released the Opinions on Promoting National Fitness and Sports Consumption to Promote the High-Quality Development of the Sports Industry, striving to expand the market size of the ice and snow industry to more than 800 billion yuan and to promote the goal of “300 million people in winter sports.”
“It can be seen that winter sports in China are setting out to play an increasingly large part across the country. Home to rich resources, Northeast China is strong in winter sports, making it a hot destination in winter for tourists from the south. In terms of the industry in South China, the construction and use of many indoor ice and snow stadiums has embraced the rapid expansion of participants. The related consumer population has started to explode,” said Zhong Bingshu, principle of the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports.
Targeting the thriving ice and snow industry, the General Administration of Sport of China and three other commissions jointly issued the “Ice and Snow Sports Development Plan (2016–2025),” which proposed several development goals, two of which deserve attention. The total scale of the ice and snow industry is expected to reach 600 billion yuan in 2020 and to hit 1 trillion yuan by 2025.
Cultural connotations
Ice and snow tourism, as the central component of winter tourism and the ice and snow economy, relies on climate and resources to enrich ice and snow culture, leading to the formation of a development pattern of ice and snow tourism with Chinese characteristics centered on ice and snow tourism and supplemented by leisure and vacation activities.
Beyond Northeast China, ice and snow tourism exists in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Guizhou Province, Hunan Province, Qinghai Province, Sichuan Province, and cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen. The ice and snow tourism industry has become untethered from seasonal and geographic restrictions and become a major part of the urban leisure tourism industry. Qinghai has launched many tourism products such as self-driving tours, ice and snow tours, and photography tours so that people can travel across the entire region in any season and at any time. The Altay region of Xinjiang has carried out activities such as the Kanas Ice and Snow Festival and the Fuhai winter fishing festival. Its ice and snow tourism industry is thriving. Liupanshui of Guizhou has built the Yushe ski resort and the world’s longest cableway to date, serving as the most representative winter tourism base in southern China.
With the fast growth of China’s ice and snow tourism, some travel destinations are becoming increasingly popular. More consumers go to snow parks in the hope of a good travel experience, more than just for sports. This requires the integration of snow and ice resources with associated industries, creating a multi-industrial system featuring tourism, sports, cultural creative products, manufacturing and fitness.
During the snow season of 2018–2019, the ice and snow tourism in Xinjiang and the three provinces in Northeast China, namely Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, have been growing at a fast pace. Market space and the ability to attract tourists from the south are rising rapidly. The huge potential for consumption and novel experiences is benefiting the areas of southern China with little snowfall. Integrated projects such as “ice and snow towns” are mushrooming, according to the “China Snow and Ice Industry Development Research Report 2019.”
Kui Silong, a senior researcher at the Department of Culture and Tourism at the China Economic Information Service, said that his team has researched the ice and snow leisure destination indexes, finding that the top resorts have been endowed with the rich cultural connotations of natural resources and that they have pursued sustainable development by promoting four-season tourism while focusing on branding and marketing to make scenic spots known to more people.
The vigorous development of China’s ice and snow industry has attracted many listed companies to make strategic moves. As of August 2019, a total of nineteen listed companies concerning the snow and ice industry have invested in venue operations and construction, event operations, tourism and equipment production and sales.
Challenges
As the Chinese economy enters a new stage of high-quality development, the ice and snow industry will inject new momentum into economic transformation and upgrading, regional coordinated development, and expansion of household consumption. Despite the industry’s vast potential, the challenges it faces cannot be ignored. “China’s Ice and Snow Industry Development Research Report 2019” mentioned that after several years, the central components such as competitions, sports training and equipment manufacturing remain weak in terms of ability to create value. The major driver of consumption is ice and snow tourism. In general, varying business formats have failed to realize coordinated development.
Industry insiders believe that China’s ice and snow industry needs to double down on experience improvement and talent cultivation. Also, it needs to strengthen cooperation and seek new drivers of consumption, fueling China’s ice and snow sports so they can develop rapidly.
“To be objective, China’s ice and snow equipment industry is still in its infancy, and it faces evident problems such as difficultities on research and development, an imperfect technical standards system and an urgent need to optimize the industrial system. It requires immediate actions to strengthen the top-level design of the industry, implement supporting policies, stimulate the vitality of market players and promote high-quality development of the industry,” said Zhao Yinggang, chairman of the Chinese Association of Sled.
Experts pointed out that the lack of management personnel has also become one of the main factors restricting China’s ice and snow industry. Data show that at present, there are less than 600 mid-level or above managers in ski resorts in China, most of whom are ski enthusiasts and retired ski athletes. “To promote winter sports, young people are an important target. To bolster ice and snow sports among youth, it is necessary to promote ice and snow sports and culture in schools, and thereby incrementally seal the gap with the countries that are strong in ice and snow sports,” said Zhu Zhiqiang, principle of Harbin Sport University.
This article was translated from Guangming Daily.
edited by MA YUHONG