by Ma Changyan

When the dream of the Winter Olympics converges with the Chinese dream, “to encourage 300 million people to practise winter sports” turns from a vision to a reality，how will the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games give a boost to China’s ice- snow industry? What kind of new consumer dynamics will be stimulated? And how will it help the synergistic development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei? On these hot issues, the reporter interviewed Dai Bin, President of China Tourism Academy, Liu Xiangdong, Deputy Director of the Economic Research Department of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, and Liang Weijian, Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers China.

Photo shows children skiing at the Beijing Yuyang International Ski Resort. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Seizing new opportunities for industrial development

Reporter: From the perspective of industrial development, how do you see the role of Beijing 2022 in promoting China’s ice-snow industry?

Liu Xiangdong: The Winter Olympic Games will play an important role in boosting the local and national ice-snow industries. The hosting of Beijing 2022 to “engage 300 million people with sport on snow and ice,” will not only promote ice-snow tourism, culture and sports, trade and catering, accommodation and real estate, and other related industries, but also explore the commercial opportunities of such industries as winter sports, the Great Wall, folklore, and local specialties, enhance the transformation and R&D capacity of the equipment industry to effectively meet the huge market demand behind the “300 million people participating in ice-snow sports”. Beijing 2022 will leave a valuable legacy for China’s winter sports and the world’s as well, and will drive the rapid development of China’s ice-snow industry, which has returned to its growth momentum despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years. The market scale is expected to exceed a trillion yuan in the next five years, showing great potential for development.

Liang Weijian: The preparing and hosting of Beijing 2022 will drive the popularity and development of ice-snow sports in China, achieve the goal of “encouraging 300 million people to practise ice-snow sports”, improve the health of the masses, and promote the construction of a healthy China. At the same time, Beijing 2022 will also boost the Chinese sports industry. Due to the increased demand for various facilities for winter sports, the scientific and technological innovation of related equipment will also be progressed, giving rise to a large number of relevant industrial parks. Under such conditions, the ice-snow industry has also started to integrate with other industries, driving the development of fitness and leisure industries, such as winter sports fitness, training and teaching, and tourism. There is a bright future for the development of the ice-snow industry. With high-tech products, such as ice-snow equipment and sportswear becoming the hot spot for consumption, it is vital to do a good job in the synergy of industry chain and supply chain.

Reporter: How to promote the high-quality and sustainable development of China’s ice-snow industry in the future?

Dai Bin: The development of ice-snow leisure and tourism is an effective path to realize the creative transformation and innovative development of the Olympic legacy. What the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics leave behind is not only a sporting heritage, but also economic assets. Many host cities of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics are often ski resorts before the games, and benefited from the hosting of the Olympics, they will attract tourists from all over the world afterwards, which in turn will speed up the local economic and social development.

As the host cities of the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, Beijing and Zhangjiakou have built and innovated quality venues and transport infrastructures. In addition to the services during the Olympics, an extremely rare Olympic legacy has been created. These competition venues, service facilities and transport infrastructures provide valuable assets for the development of ice-snow sports, leisure, and tourism. China’s ice-snow economy is still in its start-up phase, and scientific and rational planning, design and market cultivation are indispensable to transform the Olympic legacy into Olympic assets.

Liu Xiangdong: Compared with the winter sports powers, China still faces more challenges in infrastructure construction and talent training. In the future, we should strengthen the construction of venues and facilities, increase the public’s awareness, participation, and popularity of winter sports, while forming a mechanism for training ice-snow talents. We should constantly encourage more people to engage in winter sports. Focusing on the technical accumulation and technological innovation of ice-snow equipment itself, we should make efforts to promote the application of new-generation information technology and intelligent terminal products.

Stimulating new momentum in winter sports consumption

Reporter: From the perspective of consumption, how will the Beijing Winter Olympic Games promote the consumption of ice-snow sports?

Liu Xiangdong: The Beijing Winter Olympics has boosted residents’ enthusiasm for ice-snow sports and consumption of smart devices. First, it promotes the consumption of new technologies and products. With the Hi-tech Olympics concept, Beijing 2022 fully presents China’s new technologies, products and other innovations, such as new ultra-clear viewing experiences based on 5G virtual reality (VR), synchronized view, panoramic view, and new applications in smart driving, drone delivery, and smart security based on 5G networks, showcasing the latest technology and application achievements to the world and promoting consumption in smart devices, digital products, etc. Second, it facilitates the consumption of green products. With the Green Olympics concept, the Winter Olympics will adopt more new energy products, such as trying to use hydrogen fuel cell buses and creating "Olympic low-carbon zone", effectively promoting the consumption of green products. Third, it stimulates the consumption of cultural and creative products. With the concept of sharing the Olympics, Beijing 2022 will integrate modern architecture with natural landscape, history and culture to build a quality asset that can be passed on and benefit the people, effectively promoting the consumption of cultural products. Fourth, it is expected to boost the consumption of international sports tourism. The Winter Olympics has opened up international visions for tourism development in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, and is also an excellent opportunity for the two places to showcase their cultural and tourism characteristics to the world. After the pandemic, it is expected to attract more international tourists to visit the places where the Olympic events have been held, for leisure tourism, business talks, investment in factories, and recuperation and settlement. The host cities will also showcase their charm, strength and vitality to the world, unleashing the potential of international cultural and tourism consumption.

Reporter: How can we continue to stimulate new momentum in ice-snow sports consumption?

Dai Bin: While we are in a new stage of comprehensive development of mass tourism, the huge market of ice-snow leisure and tourism brought by Beijing 2022 will play a great positive role in expanding the economy of tourism. Therefore, we should seize this opportunity to build venues and facilities that can adapt to the needs of the people for ice-snow tourism and leisure, and cultivate new projects, products and business models. Only by working from both the supply and demand sides can the policy be better implemented. It is necessary to optimize the spatial layout, strengthen project support, develop quality ice-snow tourism products and innovate the supply system of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Culture, Sports and Tourism Belt. The co-construction and share of tourism brands across different levels of administrative divisions is a worldwide challenge that requires both scientific design at the top and the innovation and practice at the local level, as well as the introduction of flagship ice-snow events, strengthening the promotion of overseas inbound tourism and enlarging the room for international development of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Culture, Sports and Tourism Belt. In terms of tourism destination construction and brand cultivation, it is vital to strengthen cultural guidance and technological innovation, develop smart tourism, and continuously upgrade tourism governance and tourist satisfaction.

Contributing to the synergistic development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei

Reporter: From the perspective of regional economic development, how will the Beijing Winter Olympics contribute to the synergistic development of the economies of Beijing and Hebei?

Liu Xiangdong: As Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei continue to advance their collaboration, the supporting facilities in Chongli, Yanqing and Huailai have been stepped up to complete. A number of key projects built to host the Winter Olympics have promoted infrastructure interconnection between Beijing and Zhangjiakou. The completion of the Beijing-Zhangzhou high-speed railway has greatly shortened the travel time from downtown Beijing to Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou in Hebei, driving the synergistic development of large, medium and small towns in the region, promoting the construction of a world-class city cluster in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and accelerating the formation of a new pattern of co-city development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. In particular, by coordinating local economic and industrial development and jointly building the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics Culture, Sports and Tourism Belt, it has promoted local economic development and industrial restructuring, benefiting urban and rural residents.

Liang Weijian: Beijing has become the world’s first city to host both summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games, and the future legacy of the Winter Olympics will be amazing. Since the beginning of the preparations of Beijing 2022, great importance has been attached to the legacy. With due regard to its passing on, a strategic plan has been developed and implemented, focusing on planning and applying it in 35 areas in seven aspects, namely, sports, economy, society, culture, environment, urban development, and regional development, leaving a valuable asset for the long-term development of the host cities and the regions, benefiting the general public and achieving a win-win situation for the Olympic Movement and the development of the city and the region respectively. After the Winter Olympics, Zhangjiakou and Yanqing Zones will be built into a ski tourism industry belt in northwest Beijing, and this will drive the development of the ski tourism industry in the entire north China.