(Yicai) Dec. 18 -- Cities in the south of China have been eager to tap into the ice and snow activity craze sparked by the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 and have been building a number of winter sports venues in high-altitude areas as well as indoor that are now competing with the traditional hotspots in the north of the country.

Three of the 12 ice and snow tourism destinations recommended by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Dec. 16 are located in the south of the country.

There are a number of high-altitude areas in the south of the country which also have a lot of snow and ice, and several ski resorts have been built in the snowy alpine areas of southwestern Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in recent years, Chen Qiankang, a professor at the School of History, Culture and Tourism at Sichuan Normal University, told Yicai.

It is expensive and time-consuming for people in the south to travel to the usual ice and snow resorts in the northeast of the country and around Beijing, said Pu Yongjian, a professor at Chongqing University. So there is a market for ice and snow tourist attractions in the southern regions.

Although it costs more to run ice and snow resorts in the balmy south, they can charge more due to the scarcity of the service, Pu said. Fortunately, the economy is more developed in the south and people have more spending power so it is not difficult for ice and snow venues to attract tourists.

The Ganlu Mountain Ski Resort, which is located in Wuhan, one of the country’s ‘furnace cities’ known for its long, scorching summers, is the seventh largest indoor ski resort in the world, Wu Kejun, director of Wuhan Urban Construction Group, told Yicai.

Since it opened just over a month ago, it has attracted a lot of visitors from the area and surrounding provinces. On weekdays it receives almost 1,000 people a day and this doubles at the weekend.

The country’s first ice and snow-themed mall is attached to the ski resort and many tourists go there to buy their winter sports equipment, Wu said.

Ice and snow tourist resort operators in the south are earning a similar amount to their counterparts in the north, Chen said. The reason being that most people living in the south of the country do not know how to ski and do not have their own equipment. Each time they make a booking, they need to complete a series of purchases such as buying tickets, renting equipment, hiring a coach, staying in a hotel and ordering meals. The indoor ski resort has to provide a full range of services and this drives up revenue.

Snowmaking machines have enabled snow-less areas in the south to develop the ice and snow tourism sector, Chen said. And there are many hot springs in the south. The combination of ice, snow and hot springs attracts a lot of tourists.

“Ganlu Mountain Ski Resort currently ranks second in the country. We are confident of achieving our goal of 800,000 to 900,000 visitors a year and will build the resort into a multi-dimensional sports and leisure destination with the ice and snow industry as its core,” Wu said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor