Recently, the "Media Snow & Ice Club," initiated by several veteran media professionals, in collaboration with the leading domestic OTA platform "Honeycomb," jointly held a press conference at the Ucommune Roadshow Hall in Beijing. The event announced that the Media Snow & Ice Club and Honeycomb have officially formed a strategic partnership and will launch the "Honeycomb Global Snow & Ice Experience Officer" recruitment campaign in December, inviting skiing enthusiasts nationwide to challenge their limits and experience the thrill and speed of snow and ice sports. Over 100 guests from various sectors, including media outlets, overseas tourism bureaus, brands, ski resorts, and clubs, attended the event to witness this moment.
The Media Snow & Ice Club was jointly initiated by a group of seasoned media professionals and has since attracted 80 media professionals who are passionate about snow and ice sports, covering a wide range of media types including television, newspapers, magazines, websites, live streaming, and self-media.
Zhai Ruofan, founder of the Media Snow & Ice Club, stated: Since the successful bid for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the development of snow and ice sports in China has been rapid, with a surge in participation and vigorous growth in the snow and ice industry. The driving force of the media in this progress cannot be overlooked. However, snow and ice sports remain a niche activity, and there are still issues such as information asymmetry between the media and audiences, limited content variety, difficulty for demanders to connect with effective media channels, and underutilization of promotional resources. The establishment of the Media Snow & Ice Club will effectively address these issues. The club is committed to building an integrated media service platform for the skiing industry, becoming a new type of media that enables resource sharing, content integration, mutual promotion, and shared benefits among skiing industry media, contributing to the optimization of skiing media resources and the advancement of skiing sports.
The Media Snow & Ice Alliance will create its own media matrix called "Slide & Play Media Fun," which will popularize snow and ice information in fun ways, interview well-known figures in the snow and ice community, and establish awards selected by media professionals, making them more neutral and credible.
At this press conference, Wang Bing, head of the Snow & Ice Division of Honeycomb, a leading OTA platform, officially announced that the Honeycomb Snow & Ice Division has reached a strategic partnership with the Media Snow & Ice Club. At the same time, the "Honeycomb Global Snow & Ice Experience Officer" recruitment campaign will officially launch in December, marking one of Honeycomb’s key snow and ice tourism brand events of the year. During the campaign period, those who share high-quality snow and ice travel stories and experiences on the event page of the Honeycomb platform will have the chance to become a "Honeycomb Global Snow & Ice Experience Officer" and receive free trial skiing opportunities at world-renowned destinations globally. In the first phase of the campaign, "Experience Officers" will travel to globally acclaimed ski destinations such as Nagano, Japan; the Matterhorn region in the Valais, Switzerland; the Mozart Ski Area in Austria; the Dolomiti Superski area in Italy; the French Alps; and Kazakhstan to embark on an exciting skiing journey.
Ms. Zhai Rui, China Representative of the Valais, Switzerland, Matterhorn Region, spoke at the event as a destination representative, congratulating the official launch of the Media Snow & Ice Club and the Honeycomb Global Snow & Ice Experience Officer campaign. Switzerland is a mecca for many skiing enthusiasts, and the Valais, Matterhorn Region, located in the heart of the Alps, is the shining jewel in this sanctuary. Switzerland boasts 48 mountains over 4,000 meters, 45 of which are in the Valais. According to data from the SkiBob app, 42% of domestic skiers choose the Valais as the most popular ski area in Switzerland, and 69% of Chinese guests at Swiss ski schools train in the Valais. Located at an altitude of 1,800 meters in the Tooth Ridge area, it is one of the largest ski resorts in the world, with a single pass offering access to skiing from Switzerland to France, providing excellent value for money; the Alpine village of Aletsch Glacier has over 90% of its hotels and apartments with ski-in/ski-out access; Verbier, named the Best Ski Resort in Switzerland by the World Ski Awards, is home to the W Hotel, which has been awarded the Best Ski Hotel, featuring 412 kilometers of ski runs, making it a renowned powder snow paradise in the skiing community; Saas-Fee is a year-round skiing haven for snow chasers, offering alpine slopes, off-piste terrain, and parks. This car-free town is perfect for family and girlfriend getaways.
During the 2019-2020 snow season, the Media Snow & Ice Club will also collaborate with the Swiss ski training institution HELVESKI to provide professional skiing training for media professionals, using the Chongli Taiwu Ski Resort as a base to further enhance the skiing skills and understanding of ski resort services among club members, thereby promoting the spread of skiing among the general public. Focusing on the Winter Olympics, the Taiwu Ski Resort is undoubtedly a very important ski resort, located in Chongli District, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, built in the mountainous region between 40°-50° north latitude, recognized worldwide as the "Golden Belt of Ski Resort Vacations."
Li Xiaoming, Deputy Director of the Beijing Winter Sports Management Center, also provided an in-depth analysis of the development trends and market characteristics of snow and ice sports in recent years. He stated: The Media Snow & Ice Club will serve as an important bridge connecting snow and ice tourism resource providers and the general audience. Through a variety of winter snow and ice activities, it will gather communication resources and attract more tourists to learn about and participate in snow and ice sports.
Ms. Désirée Vikse, Deputy Director of the Norwegian Business Office at the Norwegian Embassy in China and the Beijing Office of Innovation Norway, also attended the event to introduce Norway’s characteristics in snow and ice sports and tourism, expressing hope for deeper collaboration with the Media Snow & Ice Club. World champion in synchronized diving Zhou Lüxin, Asia’s top supermodel Zhao Lei, and well-known actors Sun Yimu and Yang Sen shared their understanding of skiing. In their view, skiing is not just a sport but also a fashionable lifestyle, and traveling the world through skiing is a joyful experience.
Bao Yonglin, founder of the Golden Snowflake Ski Industry Alliance, said that the skiing industry is currently developing rapidly and lacks a platform for resource exchange. The establishment of the Media Snow & Ice Club is very meaningful, and he looks forward to its better development in the future.
In addition to nearly 100 media skiing enthusiasts, the event also saw the participation of representatives from major domestic ski destinations such as Wanlong Ski Resort, Secret Garden of Genting Ski Resort, Taiwu Ski Resort, Fulong Resort Town, and Nanshan Ski Resort, as well as numerous international brands including German Falke apparel, Japanese Phenix brand, Japanese SWANS snow goggles, and American Monster sports drinks, all of whom brought a wealth of prizes. Fifteen ski destinations and tourism bureaus, including Swiss International Air Lines, Air Astana, China Southern Airlines, Japan’s Shiga Kogen Ski Area, Austria’s Mozart Ski Area, Italy’s Dolomiti Superski Area, the French Alps, Kazakhstan’s ski promotion agencies, and the Ontario Tourism Board of Canada, also expressed their willingness to further collaborate with the Media Snow & Ice Club.
Leveraging its unique media membership attributes, the Media Snow & Ice Club is committed to building an integrated media service platform for the snow and ice industry while sharing a passion for snow and ice, contributing to the advancement of snow and ice sports.