This winter, I skied 7 times and spent 10,0002

Author/ Author of "Finance and Economics" Weekly Tian Yanlin

Editor/ Dong Yuqing

Although skiing is recognized as a money-burning sport, many people also admit that which activity that young people love does not burn money? Eating, singing K, and bungee jumping in nightclubs often costs hundreds of yuan. For the sport of skiing, if calculated well, you can also spend relatively little money to get a better experience. But there is no reason to blame, the consumption enthusiasm of the public ice and snow sports is high, making the ice and snow economy hot. In addition to the rapid construction of ski resorts across the country, it has also led to the business of many hotels, homestays and farm owners around the ski resorts.

On the opening day of the Beijing Winter Olympics, it was the fourth day of the first lunar month of the Chinese Lunar New Year, and in the old saying of the Chinese, this is called "double happiness at the door". Gu Nan, who lives in Tianjin, went out early in the morning to go skiing with friends, which was the Spring Festival party they had set a month ago.

The 9-person ski team was Gu Nan's high school classmates. Most of them are experiential, although they have been exposed to skiing during their student years, but the cumulative number of ski resorts in these years is countless, and the average snow age is less than 20 days.

Considering going skiing, Gu Nan felt that in previous years, in addition to eating, watching movies, singing K, and killing scripts, the Spring Festival party activities were becoming more and more uninteresting, so it was better to take advantage of the Winter Olympics and form a group to ski.

However, this activity can be completed, and the process is also full of twists and turns. At first, my friend proposed to go to Chongli, one of the winter Olympic areas, where he had been to the Wanlong Ski Resort, and more than 30 pistes were spectacular.

However, after January 4, 2022, the zhangjiakou area ski resort was closed, and the group moved their target to Beijing. It is the first city to host both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics, and it is also the city with the most ski resorts in the country.

Unexpectedly, in early January, Tianjin was suddenly attacked by the Omicron mutant, and the team's skiing plan was cancelled for a while. When the epidemic situation was basically under control, several people discussed going to the snow field in Jizhou, Tianjin for the sake of safety. However, according to the epidemic prevention regulations, starting from Tianjin downtown, you need to hold a 48-hour nucleic acid certificate on the highway, and if you go back and forth on the same day, the journey takes 4 hours. Two days before departure, they temporarily changed and locked on the Tianjin Beichen Ski Resort, which was located closer.

It is the largest snow field in Tianjin, but compared with the largest ski resorts in China, it is simply not an order of magnitude. Gu Nan joked that he was practicing consumption downgrading. But even so, they must feel this "noble sport" with the same name as equestrianism, snooker and golf.

Tongcheng travel data shows that the consumption of ice and snow tourism-related scenic spots during the Spring Festival increased by 57% year-on-year, and experiencing outdoor ice and snow sports has become the favorite ice and snow tourism method for young tourists.

Gu Nan also found that these days in the circle of friends, half of the people are not skiing, or on the way to skiing. According to major online travel platforms, skiing and other related ice and snow sports have become a major "dark horse" for Spring Festival consumption.

Sudden enthusiasm for skiing

Like Gu Nan, Feng Tian is also a "new person who enters the pit". In March 2021, he became obsessed with skiing, and near the Spring Festival, he also went to the Beijing Miyunnanshan Ski Resort, and spent the remaining day of annual leave on the ski slopes.

In fact, Feng Tian loves football the most, and he likes a highly confrontational sport with offense and defense. But skiing emphasizes rhythmic technique and pressure control, and Feng Tian says that now he no longer enjoys the thrill of defeating his opponents, but the thrill of overcoming himself.

In order to maximize the sensory experience of skiing, Feng Tianxia bought a full set of equipment. He gave a rough account to the "Finance and Economics" weekly: a high-end Burton ski suit 4,000 yuan + snowboard 2,000 yuan + snowshoes 2,000 yuan + helmet 1,000 yuan, the basic expenditure has been 9,000 yuan; plus the average price of 250 yuan / time ski ticket, 60 yuan round-trip bus fare, 50 yuan rental locker and protective gear, and the average price of lunch in the snow field of 70 yuan. This winter, he skated a total of 7 times and spent more than 12,000 yuan.

In March 2021, Feng Tian also went to Zhangjiakou Genting Ski Resort, staying at the Genting Hotel supporting the snow resort on the same day, and the accommodation fee was 1,000 yuan per night. "That's not even counting coaching fees. I skate snowboarding, the coach fee is more expensive than the double board, 900 yuan a time, can learn 3 hours. ”

In comparison, all of Gu Nan's equipment is rented at the snow park, which is very cheap. "The ski slopes in Tianjin are not particularly good, and our expenses are not of reference value. But Beijing friends went to nanshan ski resort on the third day of the Chinese New Year, the holiday matinee is 370 yuan / person, providing boots and snowboards, I heard that the clothes provided by the venue are not good-looking, he spent 200 yuan on the road to rent snow suits and equipment. ”

Friends and Gu Nan lamented that "can't afford to play", "noble" sports are worthy of the name. "The price of a good snow field is not cheap, the distance is far, counting the collective lunch, dinner, plus car rental, the average daily consumption is more than 600 yuan." Gu Nan said.

Feng Tian also admitted that skiing is a bit of a burning money, "But where do young people go to the party without spending money?" Date dinner a meal to get two or three hundred yuan, and then casually play, such as singing K, adding up to more than 500 yuan, and then go to the bar to drink, but also three or four hundred yuan, this is not counting going to the nightclub, now the nightclub per capita 1000 yuan is not a thing. ”

Compared with skiing, it seems that the cost of playing games and watching sisters in TikTok is the lowest. How can you spend the least amount of money, slide the coolest snow, and make a best meeting? As a senior ski "old cannon", although Song Yi did not have the secret of chasing girls, the thunder of skiing for many years allowed him to summarize a lot of money-saving tricks.

Like snowsuits, snowshoes, snowboards, fixers, these "big pieces" he can find discounts on the Internet, "unless you want to slide for a long time or take a photo in the circle of friends, otherwise beginners do not have to choose too good brands." Other equipment such as snow goggles, hats, gloves, protective gear, entry-level all according to the good brand to buy 2500 yuan is also almost the same, but if you want to save more money, these miscellaneous, in Decathlon 1000 pieces can also be bought in a full set. ”

And if you want to save money, but also want to skate professionally, Song Yi suggested that you buy snowshoes first, other things to make up, renting a snowboard provided by the snow park is not cost-effective, to go to Chongli ski shop can rent more professional, but also save a lot of money. "Beijing Ciqikou also has a special snowboard rental business, the deposit of 2500 yuan, to give you a new Burton entry-level veneer, a year's rent is not expensive, before expiration can also be refunded."

In terms of input costs, skiing seems to be a sport that is "not capped and not limited". In order to pursue the quality of snow, high-net-worth players can go to Zhangjiakou, Yabuli, Changbaishan and other snow parks, or buy a ticket to fly directly to Europe, and more exaggerated, even buy an apartment directly near the ski resort. But there are also guests like Gu Nan, who do not have high requirements for snow fields and equipment, and spend hundreds of yuan to buy a snow ticket can also experience the fun of ice and snow.

In fact, since Beijing won the right to host the 24th Winter Olympic Games in 2015, China's ice and snow market has begun to heat up, and people's enthusiasm for ice and snow sports such as skiing and ice skating has increased. According to the data, as of October 2021, the number of people participating in ice and snow sports nationwide reached 346 million, and the participation rate of residents reached 24.56%, achieving the goal of "driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports".

Many ski enthusiasts say it's an addictive sport if you're not careful, and they'll feel the thrill of an instant rush of adrenaline rushing down from the top of the mountain.

It is said that the end of the ski is a "hospital", although it is a joke. But Song Yi said that another charm of skiing is to always be vigilant and flexible in dealing with crises, "especially the high-level ski slopes, which are as fast as driving a car, require you to be very alert to the front and back, left and right, and test how you deal with the small mountain bags you encounter under your feet and how to avoid other skiers." ”

A ski business that exploded

Wang Xu was exposed to skiing during his college years and has been out of control ever since. With 8 years of snow age, he has experienced dozens of large and small snow parks in Beijing over the years, and has met many snow circle bigwigs and channel providers. After graduation, he has flipped ski tickets, sold ski equipment, and is now a regular first-class agent for several large ski resorts, and also sells ski peripheral products.

From a ski enthusiast to a ski businessman, Wang Xu first discovered that the sport was on fire in 2019. That time, he waited for the cable car to go up the mountain at a snow field in Beijing, and the queue took 20 minutes, which was twice as long as usual. "In recent years, the number of participants in skiing has been slowly increasing. A lot of people who can't slip want to try it, rent a suit and go. Many businessmen have also started to enter the industry. ”

The popularity of the ski resort business can be seen from the price of ski tickets.

In 2014, when Wang Xu first started skiing, a better snow field, the fare is about 100 yuan, and the worse one can be skated for dozens of yuan. But by 2018, the price of snow tickets had gone up a factor of one to three.

And because the venue is going to hold the Winter Olympics, many people can't go to Chongli skiing this year, Wang Xu observed that Beijing's ski resorts are increasing in price, "Take the Huaibei Ski Resort, they re-engaged in a van cable car, not a chairlift, need to charge separately, plus snow tickets must also have more than 300 yuan." But in 2018, the ticket price is also about 160 yuan. ”

According to Wang Xu, selling snow tickets in different ski resorts, the profits for each level of agents are different, the general agent is the highest, and his level can have at least 20% profit margin. It's just that in recent years, the hot business in Beijing Snow Field has made it difficult for agents to get it, which makes him a headache, "Unless there is a strong network, it is not easy to get it done." ”

In fact, it is not only outdoor ski resorts that are rising in ticket prices, but also indoors. Ah Hua, a snowboard beginner in Guangzhou, told Caijing Tianxia Weekly that skiing is a very unfamiliar sport for southerners, but after experiencing it once, he was attracted by the sense of speed and excitement.

To this end, Ah Hua set up a ski group of nearly 80 people, which is convenient for forming a team at any time, and also bought a night owl card for Guangzhou Sunac Snow World for half a year. Last year, he skied indoors 7 times, and he calculated that if you count by ticket, the ticket price in 2022 will also increase slightly.

The rise in ticket prices means, to some extent, that the ice and snow economy is activated. But it's hard to say that investing in ski resorts is a sure-to-do business. For a long time, the number of skiers has increased year by year, but the profitability of ski resorts has been delayed.

Wanlong Ski Resort, which cost 2.3 billion yuan to develop, is China's first national-level 4A scenic spot featuring skiing, and is also the pioneer of Chongli Ice and Snow Resort Town. Because of the good quality and good experience of snow, it especially attracts the masters and successful people in the ski circle in North China.

In 2003, ski enthusiast Luo Li took 50 million yuan borrowed and invested in the construction of Wanlong Ski Resort. At that time, in addition to the title of chairman of Wanlong Ski Resort, he was most well known to the outside world as the co-founder of the well-known bakery chain Hollywood.

Thinking that there are still many gaps in China's ice and snow industry, Luo Li wants to be sure that there are many opportunities to make money here. But the ideal is full, the reality is cruel. After the opening of the snow season in 2004-2005, Wanlong Ski Resort lost money for more than a decade.

Although in the 2014-2015 snow season, Wanlong achieved profitability for the first time by taking advantage of the successful bid for the Winter Olympic Games, the profit scale was less than 10% of the turnover of the snow field, and with the addition of new loans to expand facilities, Wanlong lost money again from 2017 to the winter of 2018.

I wanted to turn over in the 2019-2020 snow season, but the new crown epidemic has made Wanlong lose even more. In 2020, the income decreased by more than 100 million yuan, and even the electricity, water, personnel wages and more than 60 million yuan of bank loan principal and interest were almost unable to pay.

Luo Li admitted frankly, "Many people who invest in snow parks initially want to do real estate. Bao Yonglin, founder of the Golden Snowflake Ski Industry Alliance, also said that the ski resort has sports, tourism, vacation and real estate attributes. As a real economy, the investment in fixed assets is huge, the financial cost is high, and the cost of water, electricity and heating is high. From this point of view, it is faster to return funds by selling houses than selling snow tickets.

Therefore, the first to seize the domestic ski market is the real estate company. For example, behind the Fulong Ski Resort is Fulong Holding Group; the owner behind the Taiwu Ski Resort is Qi Hong, who has been in the real estate industry for many years; the Changbaishan Ski Resort was built by Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group; jilin Songhua Lake Ski Resort, Beijing's Shijinglong, Lianhuashan and Xishan Ski Resorts are all from Vanke. In addition, several super-large indoor ski resorts in China are invested and built by Sunac.

Bigger outbreaks are behind

Since 1996, when the mainland hosted the third Asian Winter Games, the mainland's ski industry began to take off rapidly, and there were only about 10,000 skiers in China at that time. In the year of the 2015 Olympic bid, this number rose rapidly to 12.5 million due to the rapid growth of the middle-income group.

According to the State General Administration of Sport, the number of standard skating rinks nationwide will reach more than 650 by the beginning of 2021. In many shopping malls in Beijing, there are also many small artificial skating rinks or ski slopes.

After 17 years of skiing, Luo Li feels that the most fundamental problem in the current domestic ski industry is that the growth rate of customers cannot keep up with the growth rate of the snow field, and there is serious oversupply. "It's very difficult to survive in every snowfield." He believes that the root of the problem is to cultivate the market.

Considering that skiing must be "rich and idle", Chongli Wanlong Ski Resort has a preferential policy of ropeway tickets for children and the elderly, and full-time university students (including graduate students and doctors) in China can also make reservations for free skiing.

Wang Xu said that recently Beijing Badaling Ski Resort has been doing customer service, and other ski resorts ask coaches to charge, but Badaling can be free. "Beijing Yuyang Snow Resort because the speed of the cable car is very slow, often engage in dozens of yuan of 'goddess tickets', because girls go more, boys are not more? This is their marketing logic. ”

The ski industry is very dependent on seasonality. Compared with Chongli, beijing's snow season is short, the profit time of the snow field can only be insisted from the beginning of December to February of the next year, as the number of skiers is increasing, everyone is grabbing the source of customers, and the industry is becoming more and more obvious.

However, Wang Xu believes that the domestic ski market is still far from saturated, and Beijing, which has the highest market share, can do business as long as a new ski resort is opened around. "Some time ago, Chengde opened a Jinshanling Ski Resort, more than 160 kilometers away from Beijing, (after the news came out) it exploded in the circle at once, and everyone was very happy."

Although people in the industry generally believe that there is an oversupply problem in the domestic ski market, compared with European and American markets, Japan and other markets, Luo Li has said that there are only a dozen snow fields in China that can reach the level of leisure and vacation, and the future market capacity is still huge.

It is undeniable that the Beijing Winter Olympics have stimulated people's enthusiasm for skiing and have a positive impact on the regional economy.

Taking Chongli as an example, this was once an obscure poor county in Zhangjiakou, in the early years, there were few traffic lights in the entire county, and now with the ice and snow industry, in addition to the rise in ticket prices, the surrounding house prices have soared to 1-2 million yuan / ㎡.

Like Chongli, there is also Laiyuan County in Baoding City. As the best snow resort in southern Hebei Province, the Number of Snow Resort tourists in Laiyuan County increased to 3 times that of 2017-2018 before the Spring Festival in 2020-2021, and the turnover increased by nearly 4 times, which was busy with the owners of surrounding hotels, homestays and farms.

The industry expects that after the Winter Olympics, China's ski industry will usher in a real golden decade of development. Wu Bin, founder and CEO of Beijing Xuebang Snow Industry Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., has led the release of the "White Paper on China's Ski Industry" for many years. In his view, for the mass population, more people will start to pay attention to the Winter Olympics and skiing industries when the Winter Olympics are held. He said frankly that the current development of the domestic ski market is still in its infancy, and the real increment of the entire market still needs to be generated from the experience customer group. Gu Nan, Feng Tian and Ah Hua belong to this type of customer group.

Indeed, the domestic ski industry is currently facing the core problem of conversion rate, and the construction of hardware facilities and basic service capabilities need to be improved. But at present, more and more people have experienced the charm of this sport, and a broader market development space is still to come.

(Pseudonyms of Gu Nan, Feng Tian, and Ah Hua)

This article is originally produced by AI Finance and Economics, an account of Caijing Tianxia Weekly, without permission, please do not reprint it on any channel or platform. Violators will be prosecuted.