Nation braces for big boom in cold-weather sports
China DailyChina's northernmost ski resort, the Arctic Ski Resort in Mohe, Heilongjiang province, welcomes its first visitors on Nov 1, 2024. With yet another major international event, the 9th Asian Winter Games, set to open in February next year in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, the approaching winter season is expected to witness new highs in the number of ice and snow sports activities, the revenue of related businesses and the number of tourists at skiing destinations, according to officials attending a Wednesday news briefing on winter sports development. "Since the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the surging public demand for ice and snow sports and related leisure activities has popularized the winter sports sector, while the recent boom only indicates a consistent and even stronger growth in the next five-year development period," said Peng Fuwei, head of the social development department of the National Development and Reform Commission. The commission, China's economic planning body, will roll out a broad package of policies together with the country's sports governing body and tourism administration, among other departments, to help grow the winter sports sector's total market value to 1.5 trillion yuan by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan, according to an industry guideline issued by the State Council on Wednesday. "The growing demand for ice and snow activities taps into a wide variety of business subdivisions, including tourism, education, fitness, accommodation and training," Zhang said during last month's World Winter Sports Expo.