Although Taiyuan has not yet seen a real snowfall this winter, in the face of the already surging skiing craze and the eager eyes of tourists, the city’s four major ski resorts — Jiulong, Wulong, Xiling, and Longshan — opened their doors to visitors over the weekend. Compared to the previous price of 120 yuan per hour, this winter you can ski for five days for just 50 yuan. Skiing, once known as an “elite” tourism activity, is now entering the lives of ordinary travelers.
Passenger Flow on the Rise: Prices Shift from Elite to Common
To attract more people to join the winter tourism wave, the four major ski resorts in the provincial capital have rushed to capture the market, offering fashionable programs such as night skiing, music nights, and masquerade parties, while also rolling out attractive discounts to draw visitors with a “commoner-friendly” approach. A few years ago, skiing prices were relatively high, averaging 120 yuan per hour. Now, the average daily ticket price is 50 yuan. Through group purchases, visitors can ski without time limits from Monday to Friday for just forty or fifty yuan; on Saturdays and Sundays, the same fee allows for four hours of skiing.
“The Taiyuan skiing market has been striving to take a mass-market approach from the very beginning, incorporating more elements of leisure and entertainment.” “We don’t require everyone who comes here to ski to be professionals. We hope both experienced and novice skiers can find enjoyment, because that’s how our market can grow faster and bigger.” A ski resort manager admitted frankly that the consumption prices at various ski resorts have been declining year by year, and it’s no longer possible to make huge profits. However, the target audience for skiing has expanded, the number of visitors has increased, and more and more people are participating in skiing through group bookings from ski clubs, which has become the mainstream of Taiyuan’s skiing crowd.
“Two or three years ago, it cost at least 2,000 yuan for people in Shanxi to go skiing in the northeast. Now, with just one or two hundred yuan, you can have a great time at ski resorts in Shanxi. There are more routes, richer products, and a wider range of prices, giving people more choices.” According to Zhang Jun, head of Friendship Travel, the “commoner-friendly” shift in Shanxi’s skiing market has not only improved and enriched the province’s winter tourism offerings but also extended the scope of the entire tourism market in the region.
High Costs: Electricity and Water Alone Cost 10,000 Yuan a Night
“For ski resorts, snowfall is like cash falling from the sky.” Yang, the manager of Wulong Ski Resort, told reporters that the skiing season in Taiyuan generally lasts three months, from December to the end of February the following year. If the winter turns out to be snowless, the ski resort has to rely entirely on artificial snowmaking. “The thickness of artificially made snow must reach at least 70 centimeters to be suitable for skiing. If we open early, the costs will increase significantly; but if we delay opening, we can only watch the operating period shrink day by day.” Yang explained that ski resort pricing is generally divided into several phases: trial operation, official operation, peak season, and closing period. Among these, ticket prices are lowest during the trial operation phase. “Because we open early and the slopes are not fully built yet, the prices are cheaper, but they’re sufficient for beginners and skiing enthusiasts to warm up. By the time of official operation and peak season, we need travel agencies to bring groups to stimulate consumption.”
Once considered an elite sport, skiing was accessible only to a privileged few, mainly due to high costs. It is understood that investing in a well-equipped ski resort requires at least 10 million yuan. But looking at Taiyuan’s current four ski resorts, each has been operating while under construction, so additional large investments are needed for supporting infrastructure such as restaurants and accommodations, and daily operational costs are also significant — for example, the frequent need for artificial snowmaking. Zhang, the manager of Jiulong Ski Resort, said that just the snowmaking costs for the resort’s three slopes require 10,000 yuan per night for water and electricity alone, and each slope needs to be re-maintained and re-snowed every four or five days. Over the course of a winter, this expenditure is quite staggering. In addition, there are also skiing equipment and gear, all of which are quite expensive. Yet, in proportion to the investment, tourists were unfamiliar with skiing in the early years and were reluctant to participate actively. As a result, ski resorts had to raise ticket prices to maintain daily operations.
Expensive Equipment: A Barrier to Popularizing Skiing
However, one phenomenon cannot be ignored. At an outdoor gear store on Jiefang Road in the provincial capital, reporters saw that the price of a snow hat or a pair of gloves can exceed 100 yuan, while a set of outdoor clothing ranges from 3,000 to 5,000 yuan, and a set of skiing gear can easily cost several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan. Store staff said that compared to domestic equipment, imported gear is more professional and has higher safety standards, making it popular among professional athletes, but its price is also many times higher than that of domestic equipment. A mid-range imported ski suit costs around 6,000 yuan, while the suits worn by national team members are about 8,000 yuan. Ski boots are also close to 10,000 yuan, and as for the snowboards underfoot, a single board alone costs at least around 10,000 yuan. “Although skiing is rapidly gaining popularity, the high cost of equipment is a major reason why snow sports are still not widely accessible. Therefore, we also hope that China can produce more domestic brand equipment to lower the barriers to skiing as soon as possible, making skiing truly common for everyone,” said a store manager at an outdoor gear shop in Taiyuan.