Icy winters become hot commercial bonanza
Instead of scaring tourists away, Jilin’s icy winters have turned into a hot commercial bonanza for its tourism industry, according to the province’s officials.
They said they now see winter as being an important season, helping to revitalize the economy of the traditional industrial base in Northeast China.
By any measure, the expansion of the winter economy in the province has been nothing short of phenomenal.
“We have seen rapid growth in winter tourism over the past two years, with major winter resorts such as Changbaishan Wanda and Jilin Vanke Songhua Lake sustaining annual growth of 30 percent on average,” said An Guiwu, head of the Jilin Provincial Reform and Development Commission.
According to statistics from Jilin’s tourism authority, the province hosted 61.99 million tourists during the winter season between 2016 and 2017, an increase of 19.36 percent from the previous period.
Revenue from tourists during that time came in at 116 billion yuan ($18.36 billion), accounting for about 40 percent of Jilin’s total revenue.
To further accelerate the growth of Jilin’s winter tourism industry, the provincial government released guidelines for the sector.
An said that with the growing number of tourists and rising revenue, winter tourism had developed into one of the major engines for Jilin’s economic growth.
However, the official noted that there were problems that have bottlenecked the industry’s development.
These included the heavy level of investment required for construction, the high costs of operating the ski resorts, the short open season for winter tourism destinations, and a lack of infrastructure facilities and management professionals.
An said during the recently concluded two sessions — the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference — 23 delegates and deputies from Jilin put forward a proposal to help the province’s “snow and ice economy”, seeking the State’s support.
“We hope to enjoy incentives in loans for infrastructure investment, preferential tariffs for importing equipment and approval of local development plans for the winter tourism industry,” An said.
Given that the 2022 Winter Olympic Games is set to be held in China, An predicted that winter sports would attract the participation of many more enthusiasts.
“Jilin has long been a strong player in China’s winter sports and a healthy and rapid development of winter sports — which are an important part of the winter tourism industry — can lead to more topflight athletes emerging to represent our nation,” An said.
For this purpose, the official suggested that winter sports become a part of the curriculum of schools and more facilities be built.
“These efforts will eventually stimulate market demand for winter sports and winter tourism, as enthusiasm grows across society,” An said.