From mini Alps to maxi industry

Snow and ice are proving to be reliable building blocks for a booming business

Born in a city a couple of hours away by car from the Alps, Elio Bossi was fortunate as a teenager to be able to develop his skiing skills with the help of a professional trainer.

"Like many students, we would leave Milan at 6 am, reach the skiing location about 8 am, then hit the slopes nonstop for about eight hours, up and down, up and down, faster and faster," he says.

People have fun at the Genting Resort Secret Garden, a ski resort in Chongli county. Photos provided to China Daily

Now Bossi's children can replicate their father's teenage experience, because they have skiing facilities about the same distance away as the Swiss Alps are from Milan - in the county of Chongli, 220 kilometers northwest of Beijing

When Bossi moved to the Chinese capital 10 years ago, he found that the possibilities for skiing were limited to a few small and crowded ski resorts in the suburbs, but at Christmas time in 2010 he learned of what was being called Chongli's "mini Alps".

Bossi is the managing director of Beijing Daemar Heating Technology Co Ltd, which specializes in developing business relations between China and Italy and importing services and high-tech equipment.

"The chair lift at Chongli was extremely good, with no waiting time, and fast," Bossi says.

"Other ski lifts were also available. The slopes were also nice, and well kept."

Later he decided to buy a small apartment in the resort for the family to use.

Zhu Zhenxin, a researcher with Minsheng Securities, says the growth of China's ice and snow industries has coincided with the country's economic growth.

"China is developing sports just as developed countries are doing. Some sports deemed to be for rich people are also broadening their appeal and are becoming affordable to more and more ordinary people."

The magazine China Business News reported that last year China had 458 ski resorts, and that visits by people to ski areas exceeded 10 million for the first time. Over the past five years the number of skiers in the country has grown 10 percent every year. Income of the 300 most developed ski resorts was worth a total of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion; 1.4 billion euros), and ski sports have expanded to many provinces and jurisdictions.

In Beijing's application to host the Winter Olympics in 2022, it said that if the bid was successful it was likely to take the number of people taking part in snow and ice sports and activities to more than 300 million.

Tong Lixin, vice-chairman of the China Skiing Association, sees a strong link between winter sports and economic growth.

"When economic growth reaches a certain level, people are keener to do winter sports," he said in a recent news briefing. "China's national wealth, social and economic, has grown greatly, and we have reached the point where winter sports can be developed."

Zhu says he expects explosive growth in the skiing industry and allied industries over the next few years.

Based on levels of skill and of the strength of their interest, tourists can be classified into five groups, he says: those who ski casually; those on longer trips that involve skiing; aficionados of ice and snow; professional skiers; and people who have little knowledge of skiing. If ski resorts developed products to cater to these different groups, the market would be huge, he says.

At the same time, the upstream and downstream businesses in the skiing value chains, such as ski instrument manufacturing, ski education, sightseeing, entertainment and other services would grow, Zhu says.

"This is not just idle speculation. You need only look at the investment being poured into sports, and snow and ice sports are at the forefront."

For example, in February in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, Dalian Wanda Group bought a 68.2 percent share in Infront Sports & Media AG, which not only acts as an agent for seven big sporting events, but also has the broadcast rights in China to the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Wanda Group has completed or begun work on six winter sports projects throughout the country, and one, in Changbaishan Mountain in Northeast China, has already opened, receiving 240,000 visits last winter.

The outdoor brand Toread has said it will invest 34.5 million yuan to start a company in Beijing this month that will build and operate ski resorts across the country.

However, most of the country's ski resorts still rely heavily on imported equipment, such as high-quality snowboards and ski suits. The same goes for skates and boots, says Zhao Qiong, marketing director of Genting Resort Secret Garden, a Malaysian-owned resort in Chongli. There is a lack of industry standards among resorts in China, he says.

"For example, snowboards have a shelf life of three to five years, and when they are discarded many Chinese ski resorts import them.

"We would like there to be some kind of association to set out rules on how ice and snow industries are run and how they develop. At the moment everybody is simply doing things their own way, and it's no good for the industry."

The skiing apparel industry would be a natural one for Chinese companies to get into, he says, but because the technology to develop good ski equipment is absent, it is difficult for Chinese brands to break into the market.

Moreover, the industry is hobbled by the fact that there is a lack of schools or professionals to give skiing instruction. Heilongjiang Yabuli ski resort in Heilongjiang opened a school in conjunction with the New Zealand Rookie Academy last month that is considered the first international ski school in China.

Infrastructure and supporting facilities at Chinese ski resorts, usually in underdeveloped mountain areas, are generally regarded as deficient. Bossi cites Chongli, which has grown tremendously over the past five years or so, with new buildings and compounds being built.

However, it looks more like an urban area than an alpine village, he says.

"This is the most striking difference with our cozy ski resorts in the Alps, whether in Italy or Austria, France or Switzerland."

Zhao says figures related to the 2022 Games and Chongli are daunting. While the Games will draw up to 5,000 people a day to his resort, his hotel has just 700 beds, he says.

Another issue is whether enough skilled people can be attracted to the area who can deliver high-quality professional services to the huge numbers of international visitors who are expected, he says.

chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn

( China Daily Africa Weekly 09/18/2015 page8)