BREAKING THE ICE

Qiu Hui

The winter sports industry aims for sustainedgrowth after the Winter Olympic Games

After Beijing was chosen to host the2022 Winter Olympic Games onJuly3I,2O15, winter sports started gainingtraction among the general public inChina, jumpstarting the winter sportseconomy.

In winter 2o15, the Chongli SkiingResort in Zhangjiakou, a co-host of the2022 Olympic and Paralympic winterGames, opened for its first snowseason after Beijing was awarded theWinter Olympic Games.Chongli, theseat of a former impoverished county,welcomed over 2 million visitorsduring the season and earned 1.4billion yuan (US$215 million) in directrevenues.

Over the past six years,

participation in winter sports hasbeen on the rise, according to ChengChaogong, chief researcher at theTongcheng Research Institute.China’s winter sports industryquickly moved to capitalize on theopportunities created by the grandevent and the sector is now embracing unprecedented growth momentum.

Ice and Snow Fever

China doesn’t have a strongwinter sports tradition, which wasan admitted weak point of the bid.Consequently, in its candidature file,China made a solemn commitment to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the award would help get300 million people involved in winter sports. The document declared thatbeyond simply placing athletes frontand center, China was also seeking toincorporate winter sports in people’slives, especially teens and young adults.

China has since launched national policies to build winter sportsfacilities all over the country. In 2016, the State Administration of Sportsreleased the National Winter SportsVenues and Facilities ConstructionPlan (2016-2022), promoting theconstruction of outdoor skating rinks and mobile units and encouragingthe construction of removable skating rinks for parks, campuses, squares,communities, and other places.According to the plan, the country’sice rink population was expected tomore than triple from 200 in 2015 toat least 650 in 2022. The number ofski resorts should reach 800, withthe total area of ski runs reaching 100million square meters and the total length reaching 3,500 kilometers.

The plan was successfullyimplemented. Statistics from the State Administration of Sports show that by the beginning of 2021, China had 654standard skating rinks and 803 indoor and outdoor ski resorts, up 41 percent from 2015.

China’s winter sports facilitiesused to be concentrated in the northwhere snow and ice are abundant.Now, they are accessible to the public across the country all year round. The 2021 Winter Travel Report releasedby LY.com (a one-stop travel bookingplatform) showed that the Covid-19pandemic caused the flow of skierstraveling northbound to decline.Ski enthusiasts in the south insteadturned to local venues. Theme parks featuring winter sports have become preferred destinations for localresidents.

Participation in winter sportshas become an easy choice forChinese people seeking to upgradeconsumption, and the trend hascreated huge demand for the wintersports industry, said Cheng Chaogong. In recent years, rising per capitaconsumer spending and nationalpolicies aiming to promote wintersports have created a dual engineto boost the winter sports industry,according to industry insider Feng Fei.

The China Winter TourismDevelopment Report 2021 affirmedthat the Winter Games had created new opportunities for integrateddevelopment of culture, tourism, andsports in the country. China’s ice andsnow tourism is projected to reach323.3 billion yuan (US$59.9 billion) inthe 2021-22 season.

Young and Enthusiastic

Ice and snow sports have distinctappeal, said Feng Fei. From theperspective of participation, snowsports are often closely linked totourism and favored by young adults,while ice sports are more popular withteenagers. Compared to snow sportsconsumers, ice sports consumers aremore likely to make repeat purchases.

An industry insider for more than10 years, Feng has witnessed a steepincrease in the number of childrenhitting the rinks with support fromtheir parents.

“Ice hockey is a good example,” said Feng. “In 2009, only 40 children were engaged in systematic ice hockeytraining in Beijing. Twelve years later, nearly 10,000 ice hockey playersare registered in the city.” Since thesuccessful bid for the Winter Games,China has been actively promotingwinter sports in schools, whichhas resulted in millions of teensbecoming involved in ice sports.

Every year since 2015, 5,000 kidsfrom 25 schools have participatedin ice skating classes at ShanghaiFeiyang Ice Sports Center, China’sfirst commercial ice skating stadium, according to Yang Yang, its founder.Feiyang Club now offers coaching on short-track speed skating, ice hockey, and figure skating to more than 30schools in Shanghai.

In contrast to the ski resortsusually found in the suburbs, skating rinks are usually built in stadiumsor commercial streets in centralurban areas. On weekends, rinks areusually crowded with trainees andsurrounded by parents.

At the WukesongHuaxi HI-ICEIce Park in western Beijing, somechildren were practicing skating on a weekday morning in December 2020. A manager said that the park hostsan average of 10,000 visitors everymonth. After trying out the ice, some choose to join training courses orother organized activities.

Not far from HI-ICE is theWukesong Ice Sports Center, the first operational carbon dioxide ice rinkfor the Winter Games. In May 2021,the center was officially inauguratedas the ice hockey training stadiumof the Winter Games. Today, Feng Fei is responsible for management andoperation of the center. He said thatafter two months of trial operation,200 students had registered fortraining programs at the center. “Ithink more people will train hereafter the Winter Games,” he added,predicting that next year at least 500 people would join ice hockey classes and 3,000 would register for figureskating programs.

Zhao Yan, chairman of HuaxiGroup, said her company, owner ofthe Wukesong Ice Sports Center, willcarry on the legacy of the WinterGames. The center will open to thepublic as a complex of commercialand winter sports facilities in April2022, a month after the Winter Games conclude. To meet people’s needsfor winter sports, Zhao’s companyplans to develop innovative productsand services, promote integrateddevelopment of the winter sports and entertainment industries, and builda complete industrial chain servingcultural and sports industries.

Ye Tanglin, executive vice president of the Mega City Research Instituteat Beijing-based Capital Universityof Economic and Business, said

that primary and secondary schoolstudents’ early involvement inwinter sports helps improve publicparticipation and the winter sportsindustry, which drives the growthof the related industries, includingtourism, catering, and entertainment.

However, the foundation for wintersports in China remains relatively weak, according to Ye. Increased investmentin winter sports has been decent atthe early stage. But as the WinterGames draw near, the long-term andefficient use of relevant infrastructurehas become a prominent issue for theindustry in the medium term. Ye saidthat since the Winter Games venues are located in Beijing and Hebei Province,the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region’swinter sports industry stands to benefit most. Nonetheless, Ye cautionedagainst a potentially overheated market and reckless expansion. Typically, most winter sports customers live withina certain radius of sports facilitiesand theoretically, there is a distancelimit for loyal customers. In addition,consumption frequency is difficult topredict.

New Opportunities

The Winter Games have broughtnew development opportunities forBeijing and its neighboring regions.

As the Beijing Winter OlympicGames drew near, the event alreadystarted making a big impacton the surrounding regions.It has invigorated the wintersports economy and industrialdevelopment in Beijing and HebeiProvince, accelerating coordinateddevelopment of transportation,environmental protection, industry,and public services in the twolocalities. The Winter Games havepromoted the development of the“Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Sportsand Leisure Tourism Belt.” Wintersports have driven the developmentof tourism and the sports industry,which in turn have boosted regionaldevelopment.

However, China’s winter sportsindustry is still at an early stage ofdevelopment. Ye Tanglin noted thatalthough the winter sports industryin the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regionhas accelerated over a short periodof time, a complete industrial chainwith upstream and downstream links has not yet formed. To foster newengines for growth in the region,especially Beijing and Zhangjiakou,forging an industrial chain with core competitiveness by making full useof the legacy of the Winter Gamesand boosting development of wintersports tourism and green technologies is essential.

Compared to summer sports,winter sports have a lowerconsumption frequency. However,they have much room to raisemarket penetration and the average transaction value tends to be higher. Post-Games usage of the venues and universal winter sports educationwill become a driving force for thevigorous development of the winter sports economy.

In an article, tourism analystWang Xinlei suggested the winter sports industry reach out toculture and tourism and seekintegration with environmentalprotection, agriculture, science,and technology. In the short term, this would boost consumption. Inthe medium term, it would driveinvestment and employment. In thelong term, it would contribute tosustainable development, includingenvironmental improvement,urban construction, and regionalcoordination.

Cheng Chaogong is optimisticabout the prospects of the wintersports industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. He thinksthat promotion of national policies,public interest in the Winter Games,and increasing awareness of wintersports have created unprecedenteddevelopment opportunities in theregion.

“For the winter sports economyto prosper, you have to build wintersports facilities for tourists,” he said.“But securing sustained growth inthe post-Games era is even moreimportant.”