00:00China is looking to capitalize on a boom in its winter sports and entertainment industry.
00:06With more than 300 million people enjoying seasonal activities each year,
00:11the sector is expected to bring in $168 billion by 2027.
00:18CGTN's Zheng Songhu reports from China's Harbin City,
00:22one of the largest ice and snow theme parks in the world.
00:26China has huge potential for winter tourism.
00:29Experts say by the end of next year, the total volume of winter tourism will reach 1 trillion yuan.
00:35China's central government has also set goals like,
00:39by 2027, the total volume of winter tourism should reach 1.2 trillion yuan,
00:45and by 2030, increase to 1.5 trillion yuan, which is about $200 billion.
00:53The central government has introduced 24 measures to boost winter tourism.
00:58For example, China will promote the development of the whole industrial chain of ice and snow sports,
01:04culture, equipment and tourism.
01:06Sports venues and supporting services,
01:09winter sports and economic education in colleges and vocational schools will be enhanced.
01:15Financial support systems have also been introduced around the country.
01:19In Changchun City in Jilin Province,
01:23officials offered local enterprises subsidies to hold tourism activities.
01:28Xinjiang officials also provided the companies decent loans to develop the industry.
01:34Hosting big-ticket events is another way to boom winter tourism.
01:39And the Winter Games next year has also made Harbin or even the entire northeast China even more popular this winter.
01:47And the amount of visitors to Harbin City, 80% of them are from southern China,
01:55cities like Hangzhou, Chengdu, Changsha, Sanya, etc.
02:00Aside from Harbin City, the cities like Mohe in Heilongjiang and Yanbian and Changchun in Jilin Province
02:11and Shenyang and Dalian in Liaoning Province are also popular this winter for the tourists.
02:17Let's now hear from Justin Downs, President of Axis Leisure Management.
02:22Certainly the Harbin Ice Festival has become a global phenomenon.
02:26It always used to attract millions and millions of visitors, including a lot from overseas.
02:32And so there are still many millions of people in China,
02:35or tens of millions of people in China that have yet to experience it.
02:38So what it does is it exposes people to the winter environment.
02:43Then it triggers their interest in getting involved in the winter sport that comes as a result of that.
02:48So people go to Harbin, they experience the snow and the ice,
02:52and then they say, hey, mom and dad, I want to go skiing or ice skating or snowboarding.
02:57And it's a really important part of the whole ecosystem.
03:00Talk to me about winter sports and which ones are gaining popularity in China.
03:07Well, certainly skiing and snowboarding are the most user-friendly,
03:11easy for the mainstream population to pick up.
03:15It's not a specialist sport per se.
03:19It's not limited by time or space.
03:22So skiing and snowboarding is enjoying extreme popularity right across the country,
03:28from the northern ski resorts in outdoor ski destinations to the south in indoor ski domes.
03:37The pickup both from the youth and from the more senior, more mature population is quite phenomenal, really.
03:45How much of a boost has Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics been for the snow economy?
03:53Well, even well before the Olympics happened.
03:56So going back to 2015 when the Olympics were announced, the economy of snow sports or winter sports was already on the rise.
04:04The Olympics solidified that.
04:06And ever since the day that Beijing won the Winter Olympics,
04:10the government has thrown its full support behind anything to do with winter sport,
04:15whether it's education relating to people getting involved as a career in winter sport or participation or the media,
04:23culture, social well-being.
04:26The government has been 100 percent behind it.
04:29So the Winter Olympics really confirmed that the pathway for China being a dominant global force in winter sport was because of the Olympic Games.
04:39So no question that's been a phenomenal outcome.
04:43Is it possible to put a number to the value of the snow economy?
04:47It's not just tourist destinations, but it's also the manufacture of ski poles, for example.
04:53Oh, no question.
04:54I mean, it's a massive, as I said, an ecosystem.
04:57So China is now one of the world's leaders in development of chairlifts and snow making machines,
05:03whereas 15, 20 years ago it was all about importing from the international market.
05:09So the production and creation of retail clothing brands and ski equipment, ice skates,
05:16it's quite phenomenal really where China has come from to where it is now.
05:23Ten years ago, China used to watch what was going on in the rest of the world.
05:28Now the rest of the world is watching what China is doing because China is innovating
05:32because it's the most maturely advancing market for introducing new product into the market, new consumers to the market.
05:42So China has definitely become an industry leader, and the rest of the world is watching.
Comments