“1000 Chinese Ski Resorts By End of Year”

An optimistic post-Olympic round up of the state of the Chinese ski market has estimated that the country will have more than 1,000 ski areas by the end of 2022.

Most recent counts have put the number of conventional ski areas – many of them small with just one or two surface lifts and runs – at approaching 800, although there are also now hundreds of dry slopes, conveyor ski simulators and more than 30 indoor snow centres.

In the 1960s to 1980s there were ‘guesstimates’ that there might be more than 1,000 ski areas in both the USA and Japan, but both ae nearer to 500 now with many smaller centres in both countries closing over the past 50 years.

China announced it had passed its target, announced in 2016, to have “more than 300 million people experience ice and snow sports by 2022” in time for the start of the Games.

“Driven by the Beijing Winter Olympics, business opportunities in China’s ice and snow sports market have accelerated and become a ‘blue ocean’ in the eyes of foreign brands,” said Wang Lei, snow market director of POMA Beijing Ropeway Co., Ltd.

“The number of participants in ice and snow sports in China has reached 346 million, and the participation rate of residents has reached 24.56 percent, which strengthened our confidence in the ice and snow industry,” Wang said.

The China.org.cn report claims the expansion of snow sports in China has trillion-yuan-level growth potential and will lead to a seismic shift in the global ski industry.