Industry News
Skiing is experiencing a surge in growth in an unlikely corner of the world. China has been consistently growing their domestic ski industry both in terms of skier visits and total ski areas. The recently published China Ski Industry White Paper paints a picture of rapid growth and enthusiasm for the sport, citing 26.1 million skier visits for the 2024-25 season, which pushes the country ahead of Switzerland and Japan with 23.1 and 24.4 million respectively for 2023-24.
With a 12.9% increase in skier visits over last year, China’s growth rivals the best years the U.S. ski industry has had in the last decade. According to data from the National Ski Areas Association, the only season in the last ten years that notched that much growth in U.S. skiing was the 2020-2021 season, and in five of the last 10 years, U.S. skier visits have shrank, compared to skiers visits in China which have only decreased twice since the China Ski Industry White Paper was first published in 2016.
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Fascinatingly, 70% of China’s 26 million skier visits were by snowboarders last season. This is a staggering figure, considering USA’s and Japan’s ski industry participants are made up of only about 30-33% snowboarders. Snowboarding’s popularity in China may be due in part because it may be faster and easier for some to learn. Winter sports have experienced a massive boom in China since the 2022 Winter Games. According to Benny Wu’s whitepaper, the most popular snowboard brand by far is American company Burton, with Salomon and Nitro a distant second and third.
Most of the skiing and boarding in China is concentrated in the Northern part of the country, where average winter temperatures are much colder. According to a report published in 2023, many of China’s ski areas see an average snow depth of only 40-50 centimeters (16-20 inches)—or about one good Utah powder day. Only a handful of ski areas have vertical drops over 900 feet, making China’s ski areas roughly comparable to Midwest or East Coast skiing in the U.S. But at 748 ski areas—up 29 from last season—there’s quite a lot to choose from. Of the 29 new ski areas in China, six were indoor ski areas, taking the total to 66 indoor snow centers. The boom in indoor skiing is partly due to China trying to overcome these meterological challenges as well as a high demand from city centers in the South. In recent years, China has constructed some of the largest indoor ski areas in the world. According to the whitepaper, Shanghai L+SNOW and Harbin BONSKI, the two largest indoor resorts, offer 16 acres of snow area which attracted 5.6 million of the skier visits last year, up 15% from the previous year. This amounts to a staggering 21.6% of all of the country’s skier visits.
While China’s growth in skier visits and resorts is nothing short of impressive, the country faces the challenge of skier retention. 25% of winter sport enthusiasts skied or snowboarded for only one day. The average number of skier visits rose from 1.80 to 1.92 last season, however, the problem remains converting the many that try out snowboarding or skiing as a novelty into repeat customers. However, at this point, it does not seem that the appeal of winter sports in China is dying down any time soon, so even low conversion rates should keep the industry growing. It is important to remember though, that Japan experienced a similar boom after the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics, which saw many indoor ski centers built and existing ski resorts expanded. Through the 1970s and 1980s, skiing became one of the country’s most popular leisure activities, and many indoor slopes were built, only to close in the 1990s and early 2000s. The influx of foreign skiers and snowboarders into Japan then transformed the country back into the skiing mecca that it is today.
China opened its first ski area in 1986, but skiing and winter sports did not really start to grow until 2015 when China was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics. In the years leading up to the Beijing Winter Olympics, China invested heavily in growing both its infrastructure and appetite for skiing. The State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science started studying snow making and snow storage techniques in 2015 to prepare for the Olympics, and the ski industry has benefited ever since. In 2015, there were just 50 snowguns in the whole country. In 2019, just a few years before the Beijing games, there were almost ten times as many.
Though China does not enjoy the incredible snow of its Japanese neighbors, Chinese skiers do not seem to mind. The explosion of skiing in China surrounding the 2022 Winter Olympics has been nothing short of astounding. Heading into the Cortina d’Ampezzo games, all eyes will be on the 15 Chinese athletes will represent a country increasingly excited about skiing.
