00:00Let's take a closer look at China's growing winter sports market.
00:04Its popularity has grown following the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
00:08Since then, more than 313 million people have taken part in ice and snow sports in China.
00:16And the government now wants the ice and snow economy to be a key force in boosting economic growth,
00:22with ambitious plans to expand the sector to around $207 billion by 2030.
00:28That will be a 70% increase on 2023.
00:32A central part of the five-year plan is to build more facilities.
00:36In 2015, China had around 700 winter sports venues nationwide.
00:41But by the end of 2023, that number had skyrocketed to over 2,800, an increase of 400%.
00:49And the government aims to secure land to build even more.
00:53Now, skiing is particularly important.
00:55Over the last decade, China's evolved from having virtually no ski culture
00:59to having more resorts than any other country in the world, more than 700 nationwide.
01:05And all those facilities are attracting more and more visitors.
01:09In 2023, China recorded more than 385 million winter leisure visits, a year-on-year increase of 38%.
01:18Meanwhile, revenue is up 50%.
01:2187 million of those visits were to Harbin, a traditional winter tourist destination in northeastern China,
01:28which generated $17.2 million in tourism revenue.
01:32And with the Asian winter games now well underway in the city,
01:36the local ice and snow economy looks poised for yet another lucrative season.
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