How to develop high-quality ice and snow economy after the Winter Olympics

【Expert Reviews】

　　With the end of the Beijing Winter Olympics, will the consumption boom in the ice and snow economy driven by it die down and become a short-term phenomenon?

If we look at it systematically from the three stages before the game, during the game and after the game, the driving effect of large international sports events such as the Winter Olympics will obviously not be a short-term phenomenon.

From the pre-competition point of view, a survey by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that since Beijing successfully bid for the Winter Olympics in 2015, as of October 2021, the number of national ice and snow sports participants has reached 346 million.

Judging from the competition, the China Tourism Academy predicts that the number of ice and snow leisure tourists in my country will reach 305 million in the 2021-2022 ice and snow season, and the income of ice and snow leisure tourism will reach 323.3 billion yuan.

From the post-competition point of view, as the first Olympic Games after the promulgation of the "Olympic 2020 Agenda", the Olympic Games have been comprehensively planned and managed from the early stage of preparation.

On the one hand, as a tangible Olympic heritage, the Winter Olympic venues have good plans and plans for post-competition utilization, and continuous evaluation of utilization performance will be carried out; on the other hand, as an intangible Olympic heritage, the social cognition of ice and snow tourism consumption has generally been formed. .

The continuous release of such consumer demand and the continuous promotion of government policies will surely continue to promote the popularization of ice and snow sports and the deepening development of ice and snow tourism.

　　In fact, during the broadcast of the Winter Olympics, the outstanding performance of ice and snow athletes has formed a discussion boom in social media, which has greatly mobilized people's desire to participate in ice and snow sports and ice and snow tourism.

The Winter Olympics completed a socially meaningful education on ice and snow awareness, laying the most solid market foundation for the sustainable development of my country's ice and snow tourism.

　　The Winter Olympics will bring three enlightenments to my country's ice and snow tourism industry.

First, with the development of my country's social economy, people's preferences for tourism demand are changing. The demand for skill-based tourism such as ice and snow tourism is constantly accumulating energy. What it needs to burst out is to have a strong influence like the Winter Olympics. The iconic event, the cognitive guiding effect and marketing promotion value generated by this iconic event is huge.

Second, the focus of promoting the development of the ice and snow tourism industry is still the supply-side structural reform.

With the successful bidding and holding of the Winter Olympics, great progress has been made in the construction of ice and snow sports and ice and snow tourism venues in various places, thus establishing a supply-demand adaptation mechanism for the release of people's demand for ice and snow tourism.

Third, in addition to the old-fashioned events such as cross-country skiing and speed skating, the Winter Olympics are also adding new events such as freestyle skiing and snowboarding to attract young people's attention to ice and snow sports.

The development of the ice and snow tourism industry also urgently needs to continuously expand the participation of young people through product innovation, marketing innovation, and service innovation, so as to continuously inject development vitality into the development of ice and snow tourism.

　　As a tourism consumption with obvious seasonal characteristics, the off-season of ice and snow tourism is often in summer.

Although "one ticket is hard to get in winter and one guest is hard to get in summer" is a bit exaggerated, how to change from "carrying three seasons in one season" to "carrying three seasons in one season", and how to do our best to achieve balanced development in off-peak and peak seasons has long plagued many ski resorts problem.

　　But things are changing.

On the one hand, more and more areas have built indoor ice rinks and snow rinks, which can minimize the impact of natural conditions on ice and snow sports.

The indoor development of ice and snow sports means higher efficiency in the use of venues, which lays the foundation for the healthy development of ice and snow tourism; It is very close to the effect of natural snow trails.

The development of outdoor dry snow technology provides good conditions for the free switching of winter and summer usage scenarios in ski resorts.

Therefore, with the advancement of equipment technology, the awakening of ice and snow consumption awareness, and the growth of demand for outdoor sports, ice and snow tourism will no longer be a "patent" in winter and a "patent" in the north, and the pattern of north and south will be further formed.

　　It is foreseeable that through technological innovation and deepening of consumption, people's enthusiasm for ice and snow will not subside due to the end of the Winter Olympics, but will usher in a new development cycle due to the holding of the Winter Olympics.

The Winter Olympics not only left behind important venues such as "Xue Feiyan", "Xue Ruyi" and "Ice Ribbon" that can be used in international events, but also accumulated many technologies with independent intellectual property rights.

This creates new conditions for improving the regional adaptability, seasonal adaptability and market adaptability of ice and snow venues.

Breakthroughs in high-speed and large-capacity detachable passenger ropeway technology, integrated technology of artificial snowmaking and snow storage above zero degrees Celsius, carbon dioxide refrigeration technology and other technological breakthroughs, as well as the gradual localization of snow-pressing vehicles and other facilities and equipment, will further reduce ice and snow. The cost of sports has enabled more people to be able to ski and snow, making ice and snow sports a popular and even daily leisure sport.

　　Of course, we must also objectively recognize that although there are "300 million people participating in ice and snow" in our country, the number of skiers is not equal to the number of skiers.

Compared with developed countries, my country's ski population penetration rate is still relatively low.

In order to further increase the penetration rate of the skiing population in my country and increase the base of the skiing population, it also depends on the establishment of an ice and snow tourism industry ecology with a more complete system, better matching of supply and demand, and more efficient operation.

　　The high-quality development of ice and snow tourism is not as simple as building a few skating rinks and ski resorts.

Standardized ice and snow sports schools, professional ice and snow sports coaches, high-quality ice and snow sports services, supporting ice and snow tourism industry, convenient ice and snow consumption environment, rich ice and snow sports events, continuous ice and snow tourism strategies, and perfect ice and snow tourism policies are all of our country's The high-quality development of ice and snow tourism needs to be paid attention to.

　　In addition, the high-quality development of ice and snow tourism is closely related to the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic.

In the past two years, the new crown pneumonia epidemic has severely hit the tourism industry.

Because of its own seasonality, ice and snow tourism is deeply affected by the epidemic.

At present, the development of the ice and snow tourism industry has to consider the following aspects: First, we must do our best to help the ice and snow tourism enterprises before the next ski season.

Only with a sufficient number of market players can the ice and snow tourism industry have a supply guarantee for sustainable development.

Second, ice and snow tourism enterprises should handle and balance the relationship between volume and price.

Third, while doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, we must concentrate our efforts on developing surrounding markets and short-range markets, especially increasing the empowerment of big data and social media applications, and improving the pertinence of marketing.

Fourth, it is necessary to make full use of the limited time window for going abroad under the epidemic prevention and control, to absorb the original outbound ski groups to the maximum extent and strive to stabilize the consumption of these groups, and to cope with the competition of overseas ice and snow tourism destinations after cross-border free flow.

　　From the perspective of the spatial pattern of high-quality development of ice and snow tourism, the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou sports and cultural tourism belt should be done well in the near future, and the coordination and promotion mechanism across regions and departments should be optimized to promote the extension of the industrial chain, seasonal coordination, global influence, and high-quality development. The Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports Cultural Tourism Belt will be built into an innovative demonstration belt, an integrated development belt, a people's livelihood promotion belt, and a regional synergy belt focusing on ice and snow sports, ice and snow culture, and ice and snow tourism.

(Author: Li Xinjian, Professor of Beijing International Studies University, Executive Dean of Capital Institute of Culture and Tourism Development)