Coasting on 2022 Games to year-round biz

A child (right) practices skiing at Tuoshan Ski Resort in Qingzhou, Shandong province, on Feb 19. A growing number of Chinese people are showing interest in skiing. [Wang Jilin/for China Daily]

By the end of October, more than 346 million people in China had participated in winter sports since Beijing won its bid in 2015 for the 2022 Winter Games, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Tu Xiaodong, an official from the General Administration of Sport, described it as "the most significant legacy".

The consumption upgrade trend is expected to contribute to the recovery of the Chinese economy. As part of their economic planning for 2022, China's local governments have plans to promote sustained recovery of consumption.

"With the increase of residents' income and relatively stable control of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, this year's consumption growth rate is expected to return to the pre-pandemic level. The nominal growth rate of consumption is expected to reach about 8 percent, and the actual growth rate is foreseen to be about 5 percent to 6 percent," said Zhu Haibin, JPMorgan's chief China economist.

Deng Ning, a professor at Beijing International Studies University, said driven by the popularity of medal-winning sports stars, some ice and snow sports have become the new favorite for many middle-income families and a way for parents to educate their children for all-around development over and above regular academic activities.

"Online travel agencies and ice and snow sightseeing spots can cooperate to launch more study tours integrated with ice and snow sports. Such new marketing strategies can drive the development of multiple sectors like hospitality, education, sports and tourism," Deng said.

Between Feb 7 and Feb 13, the week after the Spring Festival, booking volumes of hotels near skiing venues nationwide jumped 40 percent over the volumes seen during the festival, and sales of admission tickets of skiing venues increased by 36 percent. Among travelers, nearly half of the total were families that took their children to go skiing before the start of the new semester, according to Fliggy, Alibaba Group's travel branch.

During the week after the Spring Festival break, the number of travelers who were born after 2000 and went on ice and snow trips, as well as the number of people who went skiing with their children, both jumped more than 50 percent year-on-year. Many skiing winter camps nationwide were fully booked, Fliggy found.

"During the week of the Spring Festival break and the week after the holiday, the occupancy rate of our resort and the passenger flow of the skiing venue both doubled compared with the same period of last year," said Wang Dandan, sales director of Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin province in Northeast China.