Taking to the ice and snow

Driving tourism

Holding major sports events is an ideal way to drive local tourism and enhance the influence of host cities, He said. The popularity of winter sports has brought more tourists to the country's ice and snow travel destinations, which can improve the business model of the combined sports and travel industry. A good business model of such a combination is of significant value to tourism, culture and the economy, he said.

Qu agreed that ice and snow sports events and winter mass sports activities can be an ideal touch point in building up sports sentiment. "For the 2021 to 2022 snow season, winter sports sentiment is expected to reach its peak, fostering a larger customer base and forwarding an industrial upgrade," Zhang said. "The Winter Olympics will bring about a qualitative change in the volume of the ice and snow industry to the host cities in five to 10 years after the event, driven by an enlarged ice and snow tourism population."

The Winter Olympics is indeed a fresh beginning, said Kris Van Goethem, managing director inbound of Thomas Cook China. "Many people in the Greater Bay Area have traveled to Europe and have experienced the best ski resorts and facilities. But now, with the upgrading of the domestic ice and snow industry driven by the Winter Olympics passion, they don't even need to travel overseas." he said.

Industry experts also called for cross-sector and cross-border collaboration to nurture the emerging market and overcome the hurdles ahead. "Thanks to the Winter Olympics, the nation's winter sports industry has entered a period of development, with the facilities of several top resorts, such as Lake Songhua Resort, reaching world standards," said Zhang.

He Wenyi urged related parties to promote cross-industry development of ice and snow tourism and strengthen collaboration between winter sports and tourism enterprises. This would help complete the industry chain of ice and snow tourism, he added.

"To fully utilize the huge market potential in the Greater Bay Area, firstly, we need to provide more ice and snow tourism products by building more indoor skiing facilities and providing more entertaining activities. We also need to continue educating consumers to make the pie bigger," said Qu.

Sun Na, branding director of the Guangzhou-based sports gear producer Kailas, which specializes in snow mountain climbing equipment, said with abundant snow mountain resources and improved living standards, the sport will have a sound future.