Skiers hitting slopes this season in record numbers

This winter, ice-and snow-themed travel revenue in China is expected to hit a new high as operators offer products with upgraded services and qualities, thanks to COVID-19 coming under better control in the country.

In November, the booking volume of skiing getaways soared 350 percent year-on-year, according to Trip.com, China's largest online travel agency.

Skiing enthusiasts who often went to resorts in Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea in the past few years have shifted their focus to domestic destinations this year, as most countries continue to see rising cases of confirmed infections.

This year, ski slopes in Northeast China have upgraded the quality of their products. The Heilongjiang provincial government has provided 48 million yuan ($7.35 million) in subsidies to online travel platforms to attract more visitors to the region, and local operators and sightseeing spots have introduced packages with discounted prices.

For instance, Alibaba Group's online travel arm Fliggy has provided subsidies worth 18 million yuan for winter vacation spots in Harbin, Heilongjiang's capital, on its platform. The discounts will cover hotels, admission tickets and packaged tours.

A five-day trip from Shanghai to Harbin, Snow Village or Yabuli ski resort－all in Heilongjiang－now costs as little as between 2,000 yuan and 3,000 yuan. In the past few years, such trips usually set travelers back more than 4,000 yuan, said Trip.com.

"For those travelers who come from South China and would like to experience snowy vistas and skiing adventures, they should grab the chance to take cost-effective trips this winter. Most group tours available are of small-scale and are linked with stays at high-end hotels," said Wei Bo, product manager of Northeast China at Trip.com.

"This winter, the number of visitors who took group tours to Heilongjiang edged up about 10 percent over the same period last year. Most people take trips that last from four to six days," Wei said.

Travelers from Beijing are particularly enthusiastic about skiing, and a large number are choosing to go to Changchun, Yanji and Tonghua in Jilin province, said Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

Jilin, along with the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Hebei province, have become popular skiing destinations. Since the second week of November, flights to Changchun and Altay in Xinjiang started to climb, and the daily booking volume has been higher than the same period last year, Qunar said.

A price increase of hotel rates also indicates the popularity of skiing this year. Since early November, hotels in Jilin and Altay have seen rates climb 20 percent year-on-year, and most skiers choose to stay at hotel for two days on average, which is one day longer than last year, Qunar found.

Skiing venues in China closed during the Spring Festival holiday in late January this year following the outbreak of COVID-19, and the ski season was forced to end prematurely. Economic losses for ski resorts in China for the COVID-19 shortened season could exceed 8 billion yuan, industry researchers observed.

In China, the skiing season usually starts in late October and runs until March of the following year, depending on weather conditions in different regions.

The Spring Festival of 2021, with Lunar New Year's Day falling on Feb 12, is relatively late compared with previous years. Thus, it has provided a longer sales cycle for ice and snow tours, and the number of people who take trips this year is expected to significantly surpass that of last winter, said Trip.com.

Sales of ice and snow tours during the winter of late 2018 and early 2019 reached 386 billion yuan in China. This year, revenue is expected to hit a new high, said the China Tourism Academy.

In the run-up to the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, the two cities are continuing to attract more skiing enthusiasts.

High-speed trains now connect Beijing and Zhangjiakou, with the latter located about 200 kilometers northwest of the capital, and with travel time being cut from four hours to about one hour.

Jiang Tian, a skiing enthusiast in Beijing, went to a resort in Chongli district, Zhangjiakou, on a weekend last month. He said it was the largest number of skiers at the venue he's seen in quite a while.

Fridays and Saturdays have become the most popular days for skiing-related hotel bookings, and hotels adjacent to slopes are the most popular. Travelers also pay attention to parking conditions and catering options within hotels, Trip.com said.

The online travel agency also launched a skiing channel on its home page. It introduced more in-depth travel products online, including various transportation options from cities like Beijing to nearby ski resorts, as well as lift ticket packages and skiing lessons.

During this year's Nov 11 Singles Day online shopping spree, the booking volumes of admission tickets to ski resorts and related excursions nationwide soared 860 percent year-on-year, according to Trip.com.

On Fliggy, as of late November, about 200,000 people reserved hotels near ski resorts in Northeast China this season. About 70 percent of total expected travelers chose to go skiing during the year-end holiday season, and most travelers who would like to go skiing in Northeast China come from Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang province's Hangzhou and cities in South China, it found.

This year, more than 10 domestic carriers have launched various products offering nearly unlimited flight passes for a set price to encourage passengers to take more flights. Passengers with these passes can usually take flights to a Chinese mainland city with certain restrictions or blackout dates, and they are typically only valid on weekends.

In recent weeks, popular skiing destinations such as Jilin and Heilongjiang topped the list of places that people choose to fly to with their special flight passes, according to Fliggy.

In addition, a growing number of destinations with warmer temperatures and little snowfall have built indoor ski slopes using artificial snow-making methods.

Ski resorts in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Sichuan province's Chengdu, Jiangsu province's Wuxi and Guangdong province's Guangzhou have been quite popular for locals not willing to travel long distances. In the past few weeks, they have seen bookings surge more than 110 percent year-on-year, Fliggy found.