The outbreak of the coronavirus disease caused a lot of damages to the outdoor sports industry, and is devastating also to the ski industry.
The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing have created huge opportunities for China, but that all has changed with the outbreak of Covid-19. Almost overnight, Chinas ski industry faces a rather chilly future. The planned great skiing events have all been postponed. Domestic ski resorts have ceased operations since January 24, 2019 and ISPO Beijing 2020 has been cancelled. For most of domestic ski resorts and skiers, their 19/20 skiing season has thus come to a sudden end.
This epidemic has pressed the pause key of the market, which has calmed the ski industry down. Meanwhile, it is believed that the epidemic will accelerate the industry reshuffle and will strengthen the Matthew Effect in the industry.
Benny Wu's Whitebook 2019 is only supposed to demonstrate the data of 2019, but because of this crisis, this edition has also made a forecast of skier visits in 2020 as well as a basic evaluation of the damage brought to ski resorts by the epidemic, which may offer some references to the government and professionals in the ski industry.
In 2019, the number of ski resorts increases by 3.77%, with 28 new ski resorts coming into operation, including 5 indoor ski resorts. The number of resorts equipped with aerial ropeway increased by 4.03% compared 2018, where there were 149 in total. The number of skier visits increased from 19.7 million in 2018 to 20.9 million in 2019, with a year-on-year growth of 6.09%. China thus remains the world's largest primary ski market. But to be fair, the overall growth rate of the core data has been declining substantially over the past five years, on both the supply side and the demand side.
When it comes to the type of skiers on Chinese slopes, the conversion rate of ski beginners has increased significantly. The number of domestic skiers in 2019 is estimated to be about 13.05 million, which is slightly lower than the 13.2 million in 2018. However, the proportion of the one-time-only skiers has dropped from 75.38% to 72.04%, and the proportion of ski enthusiasts has increased.
Among the fastest rising numbers in Benny Wus report is the acquisition on rental ski bindings. Since China has no suitable product of its own, the report uses data on imported ski bindings. Based on the data provided by China Custom, it is found that after a sharp fall in 2018, the number of imported ski bindings has risen rapidly with a year-on-year increase of 29.35% (from 92 tons to 119 tons).
Concluding the Ski Industry Whitebook, Benny Wu is giving an outlook on the development in 2020. Following the Covid-19 crisis, the number of skier visits in 2020 is going to decrease about 11 million, that would be 47.37%. The total number of open ski resorts in 2020 is expected to decline to about 720.
