Alpitec China - Exporting Traditions

South Tyrol, located in the middle of the Italian Alps in the very north of Italy, is one of the world‘s leading winter sports tourism destinations, but it is also home to many global players in the production of winter technologies. This region has a high concentration of the world’s best ski resorts and the province around Bolzano lives of tourism, especially of winter tourism. The numbers of our winter industry speak clearly: South Tyrol counts 30 Ski resorts, 1.095 km slopes, 95% of which are equipped with artificial snow making system, 376 ropeways and lifts and 2.3 million winter tourists with more then 11 million overnight stays. The region's ropeways and lifts transport over 130 million passengers in one season, the sector has annual sales of 250 million € and a total turnover of about 1.8 billion €. The Bolzano exhibition Center has therefore high competences in the organization of specialized trade shows in the field of winter sports like Alpitec and  Prowinter. 

Aside from the size of the country, China has geographic similarities with South Tyrol. And in the Altai Mountains of the hinterlands of Asia – from which, according to experts, Indo-Europeans brought skiing through Central Europe and into Scandinavia during their migration more than 8,000 years ago – the largest ski area in China is to be built.  
After the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, some state-run ski areas were built in Northern China which were used exclusively by professional athletes for training purposes. Skiing as a sport of the masses and private ski areas have only been around in the country since 1996. Skiing sports in China attract above all young people between the ages of twenty and forty. And that is precisely the age group in the Middle Kingdom with the greatest purchasing power, as indicated by the study carried out by the market research institute McKinsey & Company. Therefore, well-to-do consumers in China are on average twenty years younger than their counterparts in the USA and Japan.

For decades, the word “vacation” was a foreign word for the Chinese. Only since 1999 has the central government allowed every working person to take three established weeks of vacation per year. In order to counteract the strong dependency on season – since up to now, summer tourism has predominated – and in order to increase the net output in the tourism sector, provinces and regions in China are also attempting to make their tourist resources usable during wintertime. 
The most significant winter sports destination in China with the highest number of ski areas is the province of Heilongjiang which, as a result of its geographical position, has a lengthy tradition when it comes to winter tourism.

Source: Markt Report, Wintersport und Skigebiete in der Volksrepublik China [Market Report, Winter Sports, and Ski Areas in the People’s Republic of China] by TIS Innovation Park Cluster sports & winterTech