■Our reporter Li Yanjing
With the opening of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, my country's 17-year-old Su Yiming won the silver medal in the men's snowboarding men's slope obstacle course, and 18-year-old Gu Ailing won the gold medal in the women's freestyle skiing platform, people's skiing enthusiasm further stimulated.
A reporter from China Consumer News visited Beijing and found that ski resorts are full, ski training is hot, ski equipment is selling well, and skiing has become a new trend.
Snow fields are full
At 7:00 a.m. on February 3, a reporter from China Consumer Daily logged on to Meituan and Dianping to buy tickets for the Beijing Jundushan Ski Resort that day, but found that there was only one ticket left for the ski resort that day.
The reporter who grabbed the last ticket for online sales arrived near the snow field at 7:40 and saw that the road leading to the snow field was already blocked with traffic.
When the ski resort opened at 8:00, the on-site ticket window was already lined up to buy tickets.
The reporter saw that many parents brought their children to ski, and many skiers brought their own equipment.
At about 10 o'clock, the snow field was already full of people, and there were long queues in front of the cable car or the conveyor belt.
On February 10, when the reporter came to Jundu Mountain Ski Resort again, he saw that the number of skiers did not decrease because it was a working day.
Because the arrival time was 11:00 noon, the parking lot at the foot of the mountain was full of cars, so the reporter had to park the car in another parking lot halfway up the mountain.
Reporters found that several major ski resorts in Beijing are very lively this winter.
The staff of Beijing Yunju Mountain Ski Resort told the reporter of "China Consumer News" that the daily passenger flow of the ski resort on the seventh, eighth and ninth day of the first lunar month this year is still high, an increase of 30% over the same period last year.
It is not only Beijing, the host city of the Winter Olympics, that is full of snowfields. Snowfields across the country, regardless of north or south, have ushered in a significant increase in the number of tourists this year.
A person from Wulong Ski Resort in Taiyuan, Shanxi introduced to a reporter from China Consumer News by telephone that the number of guests this year has increased significantly. The maximum daily reception of the ski resort is 1,500 people. Now weekends and holidays can reach this passenger flow. On average, about 800 people enter the venue every day.
The staff of the Daming Mountain Ski Resort in Hangzhou, Zhejiang told the "China Consumer News" over the phone that despite the epidemic this year, driven by the "Winter Olympics effect", the passenger flow still rose by 20%, with 3,000 to 4,000 passengers per day.
Indoor ski resorts are also hot.
During the Spring Festival, the number of orders to book indoor ski resorts through Ctrip is increasing every day. For every 10 ski users, two will go indoor skiing.
According to the "2022 Spring Festival Holiday Travel Consumption Data Report" released by Tongcheng Travel, during this year's Spring Festival, the number of orders for ice and snow scenic spots across the country increased by 68% compared with the same period of last year's Spring Festival.
The training market is hot
"Bend your knees, look up, look ahead, adjust your center of gravity, swing your arms, it's good, keep it up." At the beginning of December 2021, the reporter saw an 8-year-old boy practicing on a ski machine in the ski training studio in Beijing Shougang Park ski.
On January 22 this year, the reporter saw at the Gaofeng Ski School of Beijing Tiantan Sports Center that six children lined up to stand on the rolling white ski machine to practice various skills.
In the interview, the reporter found that more and more people are willing to receive systematic training in order to practice ice and snow sports, especially some parents hope to cultivate their children's interest in ice and snow sports from an early age.
This makes ice and snow training courses more and more popular.
According to the reporter's understanding, the indoor ski simulator is specially used for the basic training and standardized movements of skiers in the non-skiing season.
The snow blanket of the indoor ski machine is soft, and the fall will not be very painful. If the practitioner has an accident on the blanket, the machine can be stopped in time to prevent serious accidents.
The indoor ski simulator can ski 365 days a year, regardless of location or season.
15 minutes of skiing on the ski machine is equivalent to 6,000 meters of skiing on the snow, and 1 hour of skiing on the ski machine is equivalent to 6 hours of skiing on the snow.
Now indoor ski training institutions all use ski machines, which also makes ski training no longer limited by seasons and regions.
Ski training has become popular all over the country.
A reporter from "China Consumer News" called a ski experience shop called "hopo snow" urban ski space in Hangzhou Raffles City, Zhejiang Province to inquire about the reservation training situation. The staff informed that one-to-one teaching courses are sold for one hour of single experience lessons. The price is 189 yuan, and the price of 10 formal teaching courses is 6,000 yuan.
Although the price of ski training is not low, it has not stopped people's enthusiasm for participating in training.
The staff member said: "The simulated ski lessons in the store are very popular. Recently, the number of people who come to consult or come to experience lessons has increased significantly. From 10:00 am to 9:30 pm every day, 3 ski machines are available. There is almost no free time. There are a total of 6 professional coaches in the store, and they are full every day. Those who come to the store to experience it need to make an appointment 3-5 days in advance according to the schedule.”
The on-site training courses at the ski resort are also very popular.
The reporter learned from a number of ski resorts in Beijing that after the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics, the coaches at the ski resorts will be busier, and their appointments will be filled before 9 o'clock every day.
Equipment sales soar
Recently, the reporter saw in Sijia Er Ski Store (Beijing Yizhuang Store) that although there are not many customers in the two-storey store, everyone will buy goods, and the unit price of the purchase is almost more than 1,000 yuan.
Yan Shu, a salesperson of the store, told a reporter from China Consumer News that because of the Winter Olympics, the ski resort in Chongli will not be open to skiers this winter. There is growth.
After Gu Ailing won the gold medal, the same skateboard that she used when she won the championship was sold out in two or three days.
In this store, the reporter saw a family of 4 buying ski equipment for their 4-year-old sister.
The child's father said: "I have been involved in skiing for 3 years, and the annual cost on skiing is about 30,000 yuan. Now I plan to take the eldest to ski together, so the family comes to buy her equipment."
The reporter saw in many stores in Beijing that the price of ski equipment is relatively large, such as skis, the cheap ones are more than 100 yuan, and the expensive ones are tens of thousands of yuan.
The price of ski suits and ski boots almost starts from 1,000 yuan.
The "White Paper on China's Ski Industry" released by the mob Research Institute shows that the price of ski boots is about 1,000-8,000 yuan, the price of ski suits is 100-8,000 yuan, the snowboard is 500-40,000 yuan, and the binding is 1,000-4,000 yuan.
Other accessories, such as gloves, helmets, and ski goggles, range from tens of yuan to thousands of yuan.
Although ski equipment is not cheap, sales are still growing rapidly.
According to the sales data of JD.com's Double 11 in 2021, orders for ice and snow categories such as ski suits, boards, ski goggles, and ice and snow tourism are all showing explosive growth.
The turnover of ski clothing, orders for snowboards and ski goggles increased by 270%, 590% and 300% year-on-year respectively, and the number of self-operated orders for skis increased by 23 times year-on-year.
According to Tmall data, during Double 11 in 2021, sales of ski-related products on Tmall increased by 120% year-on-year, and the number of new ski-related brands increased by 2 times.
According to the "2021-2027 China Ski Equipment Industry Market Development Model and Strategic Consulting Research Report" released by Zhiyan Consulting, the scale of China's ski equipment market in 2020 is about 12.69 billion yuan, and the figure is expected to exceed 15 billion yuan in 2022.
Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Government, said that the Winter Olympics will have a positive effect on the development of Beijing's ice and snow industry. One of the manifestations is the rapid popularization of mass ice and snow sports, from "cold events" to "hot sports".
According to the "Statistical Investigation Report on Driving 300 Million People to Participate in Ice and Snow Sports" issued by the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China, from 2015 when Beijing successfully bid for the Winter Olympics to October 2021, 346 million people have participated in ice and snow sports across the country. The sports participation rate reached 24.56%, achieving the goal of driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports.
●Expert opinion
The industrial structure needs to be optimized urgently
Wu Liyun, associate professor of the Chinese Culture and Tourism Industry Research Institute of Beijing International Studies University, told the reporter of "China Consumer News" that the current problem of supply and demand asymmetry that ski enthusiasts think "resources are tight" is mainly reflected in time, "that is, What we see on a daily basis is that the flow of people in the ski resorts on holidays and weekends is relatively large, and some ski enthusiasts may not be able to buy tickets.”
On the other hand, the problem of supply and demand asymmetry is also reflected in the region.
"For example, Beijing has a large population, the demand for ice and snow is relatively strong, and the consumer demand is also high, but the relatively high-level snow courses are mostly found in the three eastern provinces, which leads to the asymmetry of the structure as a whole." Wu Liyun said.
Wu Liyun said that in the future development of the ski industry, continuous structural optimization is needed. For example, the price difference can be used to encourage enthusiasts who have time to ski on weekdays, so as to reduce the passenger flow during peak hours.
In terms of regions, specific issues should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.
"For example, for a city with strong consumer demand like Beijing, the number of high-quality ski resorts can be increased through reasonable planning, or the supply of ski resorts can be increased. For regions such as the three northeastern provinces where foreign demand is the mainstay, it is even more necessary to carry out their own efforts. Hierarchical development will make high-level ski resorts a resort-type destination to attract high-quality external tourists. Middle and low-level ski resorts should provide good services, starting from service quality and external facilities and public services to better meet local and Consumer demand from the surrounding area." Wu Liyun said.