Frost and funds: China’s winter sports boom drives spending and industry growth
Growing participation and government support are fuelling innovation in equipment, expanding domestic resorts, and creating new jobs in China’s ice and snow economy
Each winter for the past three years, Claire Zhou, a teenager from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, has counted down the days until she can fly to northern China and pull on a new ski suit and boots.
The better she skis, the more frequently she upgrades her gear, reshaping her family’s holiday budget and pulling them deeper into China’s fast-growing winter sports consumption chain.
The country’s winter sports boom, sparked by the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and fuelled by supportive policies, has accelerated nationwide. Amid sluggish consumption nationwide, the ice and snow economy has emerged as one of the few segments consistently defying the broader downturn.